EU Commission gives Microsoft the green light to Skype takeover

EU Commission gives Microsoft the green light to Skype takeover

Microsoft should take over after a decision by the European Commission's VoIP service Skype. The European competition authorities approved on Friday the multi-billion dollar purchase without conditions. The acquisition will not impede competition in Europe because there is sufficient competition - such as Google - agree, the EU executive said in Brussels after a review of the case. The Windows group had paid for the popular provider of telephone and video calls on the Internet about 8.5 billion dollars (6.3 billion euros). The U.S. antitrust enforcement had already approved the acquisition.

The acquisition is the largest acquisition in Microsoft's history. And the price is dramatically higher than the sums that had set the previous buyer for Skype on the table. The phone service is the key for Microsoft to compete with the successful rival Apple and Google. The IT giant Microsoft, whose biggest business is still the Windows operating system and Office Office programs are tried for years to open up new billion-investment businesses.

For Skype users can call each other for free over the Internet, with video transmission. The company earns money, especially with cheap calls to traditional phone network. The service has the world by its own account more than 660 million registered users. Microsoft had last only 170 million active customer called. Skype had made last year on revenue of $ 860 million to a loss of 7 million U.S. dollars. Skype on debt loads.

The IT giant Microsoft was for years the focus of the Brussels antitrust Guardian: In several procedure focused on the dominance of the Windows operating system. The European Commission fined Microsoft more than once hefty fines. In the spring of his hand, Microsoft had complained about the disadvantage of its search engine Bing by the market leader Google in the EU.