Will Microsoft be laid low by the feds’ antitrust probe? – Computerworld

Microsoft also killed two useful features in all versions of Microsoft 365, for consumers as well as businesses, and did it in a way to force businesses to subscribe to Copilot. The features allowed users to do highly targeted searches from within the suite. Microsoft said people could instead use Copilot to do that kind of searching.  (In fact, Copilot can’t match the features Microsoft killed.) But business and educational Microsoft 365 users don’t get Copilot bundled in, so they’ll have to pay an additional $30 per user per month if they want the search features, approximately doubling the cost of the Office suite.

Expect the feds to file suit

It’s almost certain the feds will file at least one suit against Microsoft by the FTC, the Justice Department, or maybe both. After all, federal lawsuits against Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta launched by the Biden administration have been continued under Trump. There’s no reason to expect he won’t target Microsoft as well.

There’s another reason the feds could hit Microsoft hard. Elon Musk is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming their relationship violates antitrust laws. He’s also spending billions to compete against them. Given that he’s essentially Trump’s co-president — as well as being Trump’s most important tech advisor — it’s pretty much a slam dunk that one more federal suit will be filed.