Asia Tech Wire (Nov 15) -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing to launch an investigation into Microsoft's cloud computing business for anti-competitive behavior, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The FTC, which has yet to formally request documents or other information from Microsoft as part of its investigation, is looking into allegations that Microsoft abused its dominant market position in the productivity software space by allegedly preventing customers from moving their data from its Azure cloud service to rival platforms by imposing punitive licensing terms.

Some of the practices Microsoft allegedly engaged in include raising subscription fees on customers who left, charging hefty exit fees, and allegedly making its Office 365 product incompatible with rival cloud services, the report said.