For years, Microsoft has managed to fly under the radar of government agencies looking at potential violations of antitrust laws, even though it’s the second largest company in the world by market valuation, just behind Apple and ahead of Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is well aware of how his company was laid low by the US Justice Department’s prosecution for antitrust violations in the 1990s and has been careful not to run afoul of regulators.
That changed last year when Microsoft announced plans to buy video game maker Activision for $68.7 billion. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued the company to stop the takeover, but Microsoft prevailed and closed the deal last October.