Microsoft Skype Deal Cleared By EU: Internet Voice Service To Be Bought For $8.5 Billion

BRUSSELS Oct 7 (Reuters) - Microsoft secured EU approval on Friday to purchase internet voice and video service Skype for $8.5 billion, its biggest ever acquisition.

The European Commission said that its investigation of the takeover showed that the firms' activities mainly overlapped for video communications, where Microsoft is active through its Windows Live Messenger.

"However, the Commission considers that there are no competition concerns in this growing market where numerous players, including Google, are present," it said in a statement.

The deal is expected to lead to new customers for Microsoft's Windows and Office software.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission cleared the deal in June.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[Tanrioldu]

10:55 PM on 10/09/2011

Using skype

[Tanrioldu]

10:54 PM on 10/09/2011

Well I guess that's the end of my time us

[macracan]

07:53 PM on 10/07/2011

Microsoft and Skype are merging... I'm not afraid of Micrope, but am damn terrified by Skysoft. Too close to SkyNet.

[bigfrog]

06:41 PM on 10/07/2011

I hope this doesn't mean skype is going to become even more unreliable.

[macracan]

07:54 PM on 10/07/2011

How could it? It is a mess on Win7 already.

[tleb]

04:47 PM on 10/07/2011

IS skype even close to worth 8.5 billion?

[LittleSanityLeft]

05:41 PM on 10/07/2011

The price maybe inflated but to MS it is worth the cost. In terms of brand power and capability it's just the type of software they need to integrate into Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7 to stay ahead of Apple in the tablet OS and cell phone market.

[tleb]

12:04 PM on 10/10/2011

Stay ahead? Looks like they are WAY WAY WAY behind to me... at least Google got 17K patents when it dropped cash on Motorola.