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☆ Spanish startups hit Microsoft with complaint over cloud practices
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft was hit with a Spanish startup group's complaint about its cloud practices to the Spanish antitrust regulator on Tuesday, the latest grievance over its fast-growing cloud computing services and which followed a trade group's EU complaint. The Spanish Startup Association, which represents more than 700 startups in Spain, cited a number of allegedly anti-competitive practices by Microsoft in recent years. Microsoft defended its cloud practices. "Microsoft provides choice and flexibility for our customers to switch to another cloud provider at no cost, and our licensing terms enable our customers and other cloud providers to run and offer Microsoft software on every cloud," a spokesperson said. "We will engage with the Spanish Startup Association to learn more about its concerns."

Persons: Carlos Mateo Organizations: Microsoft, Mobile, Amazon, Spanish Startup Association, Operating Systems, Windows, Reuters, Cloud Infrastructure Services, European Commission, Competition, Markets Locations: Barcelona, Spain, Spanish, U.S, Europe

☆ Exclusive: Google pushes for antitrust action against Microsoft in UK cloud market
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Martin Coulter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

In 2022, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft's Azure had a combined 70-80% share of Britain's public cloud infrastructure services market, Ofcom said. Such practices directly harmed customers, and were the only significant barrier to competition in Britain’s cloud computing market, the company said. "A lot of our software and cloud services interoperate, and can run on AWS or on Azure as well, so you're not restricted," he said. "If you don't fix this, eventually you will have fewer cloud providers, and then innovation will not really happen, and investments will start shrinking." Asked why Amazon, which boasts a larger share of the cloud market than Microsoft, did not pose a similarly anticompetitive risk, Zavery said AWS consumers were not facing the same restrictions.

Persons: Arnd, Amit Zavery, Microsoft’s, Zavery, ”, Martin Coulter, Jeffrey Dastin, Kenneth Li Organizations: REUTERS, Microsoft, Reuters, European Union, CMA, Markets Authority, Ofcom, Amazon Web Services, Google, Google Cloud, Thomson Locations: Zurich, Switzerland, Britain, London, New York

Ofcom said it had identified features that made it more difficult for UK businesses to use multiple cloud suppliers. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft had a combined 70-80% share of Britain's public cloud infrastructure services market in 2022, Ofcom said. Microsoft said it was committed to ensuring the UK cloud industry remained innovative and highly competitive. The CMA welcomed the move, saying effective competition in the 7.5 billion pound ($9.1 billion) UK market was essential. Google Vice President Amit Zavery said Ofcom's referral demonstrated the need to create an open cloud market with no vendor lock-in.

Persons: Dan Ridsdale, Edison, Dado Ruvic, Fergal Farragher, Amit Zavery, Yadarisa, Paul Sandle, Foo Yun Chee, Mark Potter, Jan Harvey, Jacqueline Wong, Jane Merriman Organizations: CMA, Microsoft, Ofcom, Amazon Web Services, Google, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, Markets, REUTERS, Cloud Infrastructure Services, Amazon, MICROSOFT, Activision Blizzard, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Britain, France, Japan, The Netherlands, South Korea, China, EU, Europe, Bengaluru, London, Brussels

Ofcom said it had identified features that made it more difficult for UK businesses to use multiple cloud suppliers. Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft had a combined 70-80% share of Britain's public cloud infrastructure services market in 2022, Ofcom said. Microsoft said it was committed to ensuring the UK cloud industry remained innovative and highly competitive. UK businesses told Ofcom they were concerned it was too difficult to switch or mix and match cloud providers. Google vice president Amit Zavery said Ofcom's referral demonstrated the need to create an open cloud market with no vendor lock-in.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Ofcom, Fergal Farragher, Amit Zavery, Yadarisa, Paul Sandle, Lincoln, Susan Fenton, Mark Potter, Jan Harvey Organizations: REUTERS, CMA, Ofcom, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Google, Markets, AWS, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru, London

☆ Microsoft, Amazon facing UK antitrust probe over cloud serivces
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —Microsoft and Amazon could be in hot water over apparently making it difficult for UK customers to use multiple suppliers of vital cloud services. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the country’s antitrust regulator, said Thursday it was launching an investigation into the UK cloud infrastructure services market to determine whether players were engaged in anti-competitive practices. This “cloud infrastructure” forms the foundation for how software applications, such as Gmail and Dropbox, are developed and run. According to Ofcom, last year Microsoft and AWS had a combined market share of 70-80% in the UK cloud infrastructure services market. The report also raised concerns about the software licensing practices of some cloud providers, particularly Microsoft.

Persons: Sarah Cardell Organizations: London CNN, Microsoft, Markets Authority, Amazon Web Services, CMA, Ofcom, European Digital Services, Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, AWS Locations: United Kingdom

☆ Amazon and Microsoft's cloud dominance referred for UK competition probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Britain's anti-competition regulators have been tasked with investigating Microsoft and Amazon 's dominance of the cloud computing market. Media watchdog Ofcom on Thursday referred its inquiry for further investigation to the Competition and Markets Authority, kickstarting the process. "So, we're referring the market to the CMA for further scrutiny, to make sure business customers continue to benefit from cloud services." Ofcom is concerned that so-called "hyperscalers" like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are limiting competition in the cloud computing market. Combined, Amazon, Microsoft and Google generate roughly 81% of revenues in the U.K.'s cloud infrastructure services market, according to Ofcom, which estimates the market to be worth £15 billion ($18.2 billion).

Persons: Fergal Farragher Organizations: Ofcom, Microsoft, Media, Competition, Markets Authority, Amazon, CMA, Web Services, Google

☆ EU antitrust regulators quiz cloud rivals on Microsoft's request for customer data
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, May 19 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators are asking Microsoft's (MSFT.O) rivals what kind of customer data they are required to provide to the U.S. tech giant as part of their Azure cloud contracts, six months after a trade group complained about its cloud computing practices. Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), whose members include Amazon (AMZN.O), alleged last November that Microsoft's new contractual terms imposed on Oct. 1 together with other practices were harming the European cloud computing ecosystem. In a questionnaire sent to cloud providers seen by Reuters, the European Commission asked recipients for a list of contractual clauses requiring these companies to report information about their European customers to Microsoft. The EU watchdog asked if Microsoft may have used the information to go directly to the recipients' customers. Microsoft, hit by more than 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in EU fines in the previous decade for various antitrust violations, declined to comment.

☆ Microsoft's landmark deal with OpenAI shows that ChatGPT is going to be the defining technology of 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

It remains to be seen how generative AI will transform our lives, but the tech is here to stay. In 2022, investors put at least $1.37 billion into generative AI startups, usually at the seed stage. Why this iteration of ChatGPT made generative AI so popular right nowIt's important to note that nothing about ChatGPT or generative AI is especially new or novel. In other words, OpenAI's real innovation was taking AI technology that was already out there and making it something that was easy and accessible to anybody. That's one reason why there will be a lot more business uses for generative AI technology than consumer use cases in the near term, said Mark Shmulik, a Bernstein analyst.

☆ Michael Farr: These are 2023's top stock picks for what could be a rocky year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Michael K. Farr | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +17 min

Regarding the cloud, AMZN's Web Services business is the market leader in cloud infrastructure services. Moreover, the scale of AMZN's web services business provides many cost advantages as very few companies can compete with AMZN's investment spend and first-mover advantage. Over the long term, we would expect MDLZ to generate double-digit total returns, consisting of high-single digit EPS growth and the 2.3% dividend. There is a long runway remaining for cloud growth as companies slowly deal with legacy investments that still drive value but are not cloud-based. Management remains committed to its goal of high single-digit EPS growth in 2023, followed by sustained double-digit growth in 2024 and beyond.

☆ Here's how much money Google estimates Microsoft's cloud business is actually losing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Google has for years been playing catch-up in the cloud infrastructure market, where it's seen in the industry as a distant third in the U.S., behind Amazon and Microsoft . The challenge for investors is that the three companies don't report cloud infrastructure metrics in a way that makes them easily comparable. The Azure and other cloud services metric also includes, among other things, enterprise mobility and security, or EMS, tools that can be sold separately. Google parent Alphabet, meanwhile, doesn't tell investors how much revenue or operating income the Google Cloud Platform, or GCP, generates. It only discloses those figures for what it calls Google Cloud, which includes subscriptions to Google Workspace collaboration software, as well as GCP, a direct Azure rival.

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