The European Commission's decision to launch an antitrust investigation into Google Inc's activities has intensified that company's already heated competition with Microsoft Corp.

Google is being challenged on multiple continents with accusations of monopolistic intentions and unfair business practices. The one-time scrappy start-up has become a monolith in its own right, and now finds itself under the same antitrust scrutiny it once supported against its arch-rival Microsoft.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is moving toward opening a formal complaint against Intel, according to a news report published on Friday.

Intel on Monday sharply criticized the European Commission, which found it guilty of anticompetitive behavior, accusing the regulator of being selective with evidence it looked at and, essentially, setting out to find the company guilty.

The European Commission will proceed with its antitrust case against Microsoft regardless of the announcement late Thursday that the software giant is stripping its browser, Internet Explorer (IE), from the next incarnation of its operating system, Windows 7, in Europe.

Microsoft's plan to strip out its Internet Explorer (IE) browser from Windows 7 in Europe, due for sale in the fall, is designed to force the European Commission's hand as it devises an antitrust remedy to restore fair competition in the browser market, said Jon von Tetzchner, the CEO of Norwegian browser maker Opera.

The European Commission is asking PC makers and software rivals if Microsoft has been pressuring them in connection with the ongoing antitrust case concerning Web browsers, one such company said Tuesday.