Microsoft, who acquired Skype for $8.5 billion dollars back in May of this year, is facing a new hurdle with the European Commission. An Italian VoIP firm, Messagenet, is challenging the company’s motives for purchasing Skype claiming that Microsoft will bundle the popular program with Windows.
Italian VoIP firm, Messagenet, wrote to the European Commission warning that if Microsoft is allowed to acquire Skype, it will place Skype in a dominate position in the VoIP arena and ultimately excluding other VoIP companies from the market.
Messagenet believes that the only solution to this problem would be to let Microsoft purchase Skype but avoid the software from being bundled with the Windows operating system.
Microsoft has yet to issue a formal statement regarding this issue but a spokesperson was quoted saying that both Microsoft and Skype are still conducting “business as usual.” The acquisition is still under regulatory review and a decision by the European Commission regarding the matter is due next week.
This is not the first time Microsoft has faced an issue like it. If you all remember, Microsoft had problems with offering Windows Media Player built into Windows. Not only that, Microsoft had to offer a version of Windows without Internet Explorer in Europe, simply because there were too many complaints that Microsoft was abusing it’s dominance in the browser market.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype is a very strategic investment. Despite reporting a loss last year, Skype is still one of the the most popular platforms for real-time video chat communication and is used across a variety of platforms. Microsoft is now able to gain a strong foothold in the market and integration across Microsoft’s wide array of products should only spearhead continued growth for Skype.
