Messagenet complains about Microsoft-Skype deal to EU

ITALIAN SOFTWARE VENDOR Messagenet has filed a complaint with the European Commission trying to block Microsoft's purchase of Skype.

Microsoft's proposed $8.5bn acquisition of Skype has already been given the go-ahead by the US Federal Trade Commission, however the European Commission has yet to make its decision. Now Messagenet has sent a complaint asking for the Commission to block the purchase unless Skype is decoupled from Microsoft Windows.

The European Commission has taken a far tougher stance against Microsoft, forcing it to offer Windows users a choice of web browser and requiring the software vendor to ship Windows without its Media Player software. However Messagenet's demands do not stop with Microsoft decoupling Skype, it also wants the company to open up access to Skype's network.

In the last year Skype has been restricting access to its network, booting off a number of third party clients. Soon after Microsoft announced that it planned to buy Skype, it announced that Digium, a commercial voice-over-IP provider, would no longer have access to Skype's network, though current customers could continue to have access for two years.

At this stage it is unclear whether Messagenet's complaint against Microsoft will have a significant bearing on the firm's chances of completing the deal. On the one hand there's voice and video over IP services bundled with Apple's IOS and Google's Android, but those are not desktop operating systems.

Microsoft might have to compromise, at least on bundling Skype on its desktop Windows operating system, if wants to get its deal with Skype through the European Commission. µ