A Google split may be imminent when a U.S. judge’s decision is made. However, Microsoft is also under scrutiny (again) for alleged monopolistic behavior.
According to sources including Bloomberg and CNN, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sent a letter to Microsoft to request information. It’s a broad investigation, and specific solutions such as Windows, Microsoft 365, and Azure are not yet explicitly addressed. However, the collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI was already raised by the British Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) late last year, so that may also be a candidate for drawing the ire of the antitrust watchdog in the United States.
With a company as multifaceted as Microsoft, it is uncertain precisely what the FTC is concerned about. The most obvious options are domains in which Microsoft plays a dominant role. However, Google’s recent example shows that such investigations have potentially enormous implications.
Selling parts
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice said Google should sell Chrome. The tech giant would lose the world’s most widely used browser and dislodge Google Ads, the company’s most lucrative service, from said browser. In short, a complete shake-up in Google’s offerings is imminent if the courts agree with the Justice Department on this topic.
For Microsoft, this is far from the first time it has been in the crosshairs of antitrust. The most famous saga revolved around Microsoft’s monopolization of the browser market on Windows with Internet Explorer. In 2001, a U.S. judge ruled that this practice was illegal, but an appeal later found that Microsoft did not have to divest Internet Explorer. A settlement eventually followed, which included some compromises to Microsoft’s business practices.
In the EU, Microsoft did have to give in more significantly. Microsoft was forced to introduce a choice screen so users were not tied to Internet Explorer (IE) upon installation of Windows. Still, the company received fines from the European Commission for not complying, as it was in 2013. Around that year, though, Chrome was already busy overtaking IE’s user base. Firefox had already knocked IE off its throne within Europe in 2010.
Also read: U.S. DOJ is gunning for Google: what would a breakup mean?