Microsoft Claps Back At FTC, Claims It Leaked News Of Antitrust Probe
Microsoft has clapped back against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) following last week’s report that the regulator was investigating the tech giant, claiming the FTC leaked the news.
Initially reported by Bloomberg before being confirmed by multiple other publications, the FTC is probing Microsoft’s cloud and software licensing operations, cybersecurity services, and AI offerings.
Microsoft has requested that the Federal Trade Commission’s Inspector General look into whether agency management improperly leaked information about its antitrust investigation into the tech business. The tech giant is also urging the investigation’s findings to be made public.
Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Rima Alaily, accused FTC management of leaking details about the agency’s antitrust investigation into the company on LinkedIn. She published an open letter on the networking website alleging that the regulatory body had violated its own ethics guidelines and had yet to distribute a copy of the mooted information demand document to Microsoft.
Alaily wrote:
Today, I asked, on behalf of Microsoft, the FTC Inspector General to investigate whether FTC management improperly leaked confidential information about a potential antitrust investigation last week in violation of the agency’s ethics rules and rules of practice. Ironically, almost a week after telling the press about an information demand supposedly issued to Microsoft, we still cannot obtain a copy of this document from the FTC.”
Alaila added that Microsoft “learned of this information demand, like the rest of the world, through the Bloomberg story” and not through the FTC. Alaila also claimed that the FTC, when contacted, wouldn’t confirm if the information letter even existed.
AWS Boosts Amazon Connect Contact Center Productivity With GenAI Upgrades
AWS has announced a swathe of new Gen AI upgrades to Amazon’s Connect Contact Center, intending to boost worker productivity and enhance the customer experience.
Among the new features unveiled at this week’s AWS re:Invent 2024 event are an AI-powered segmentation tool that identifies customers with corresponding interests, a capability that automates customer service task integration between Amazon Connect and Amazon Lex, and AI-powered tools for valuing contact centre performance.
“When we first came out, we were really a voice-only solution that focused heavily on bringing AI to the contact center [with] scalability, security — the things that are our calling cards for AWS,” Pasquale DeMaio, Vice President and General Manager of Amazon Connect at AWS, told TechCrunch. Pretty quickly, we were able to add more features and get to a bigger feature completeness. Now, we offer channels across everything from chat, email — coming out as we speak — and also SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Messaging for Business.”
Launched in 2017, Amazon Connect leverages AI to enhance contact centre operations by assisting agents in responding to customer inquiries, automating support ticket processing, measuring agent productivity, and efficiently managing other related tasks.
Anywhere365 Acquires Tendfor To Bolster CX Portfolio
Anywhere365 is expanding its portfolio of CX capabilities through its acquisition of Tendfor.
Anywhere365, an AI-driven customer experience solution provider and virtual contact centre for Microsoft Teams, has confirmed its acquisition of Tendfor, a provider of premium cloud comms capabilities for mid-market and large businesses.
The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, and the acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals.
“The whole Tendfor team and I are proud to join one of the largest forces within the Microsoft communications ecosystem,” said Emil Emling, Founder and CEO of Tendfor.
We look forward to further leveraging the three drivers of growth in customer service: adoption of Microsoft and other hyperscale cloud communications; the growth of AI to augment and automate customer service through Agent Assist and autonomous Agents; and the ongoing move to digital, distributed, and hybrid work. We look forward to becoming part of the Anywhere365 family and continuing to delight our customers and partners.”
Anywhere365 asserts that the acquisition of Tendfor further accelerates its mission to ensure that every customer and employee feels heard, understood, and valued.
