Nov 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is

preparing to launch an investigation into anti-competitive

practices at Microsoft's ( MSFT ) cloud computing business,

sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

The agency is examining allegations that the software giant

is potentially abusing its market power in productivity software

by imposing punitive licensing terms to prevent customers from

moving their data from its Azure cloud service to other

competitive platforms, the sources said.

The Financial Times first reported the probe on Thursday.

Tactics being examined include substantially increasing

subscription fees for those that leave, charging steep exit fees

and allegedly making its Office 365 products incompatible with

rival clouds, according to the report.

The FTC declined to comment while Microsoft ( MSFT ) did not

immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.