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EU court rejects Cisco appeal against Microsoft-Skype deal
2013-12-11 11:37:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) The EU General Court has rejected an appeal from Cisco and Messagenet against the European Commission's approval of Microsoft's takeover of Skype in 2011. The court found that Microsoft's ownership would not harm competition on the EU market for consumer or enterprise communications. Even if Microsoft's acquisition of Skype gives it an 80-90 percent share of the narrow consumer segment of video communications on Windows-based PCs, the market is changing quickly enough that such a share could be short-lived, the court found. Moreover Microsoft is less present on new operating devices, such as tablets and smartphones, which are becoming increasingly important on the consumer communications market, and alternative operating systems offer sufficient alternatives to Skype over Windows. The company is also unlikely to start charging more for Skype as this could drive users to alternative platforms. In the enterprise market, the court did not find evidence that Microsoft could harm competition by providing preferential integration of Skype with its Lync unified communications system, as claimed by Cisco and Messagenet. "The precise advantages of and the real demand for such a product are vague," the court said, noting that the conditions of using Skype are unlikely to result in exclusive advantages for Microsoft or its customers. Finally, the court found that Cisco itself already has a much larger market share than Microsoft on the enterprise communications market.
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Category:Telecommunications