Insulting indifference
Microsoft may have slightly mixed feelings about the anticipated decision by the European Commission to wave through its acquisition of Internet communications giant Skype without further scrutiny, reported by the FT.
Back in the good old days, when Microsoft was the biggest company in the world, such an attempted acquisition would have been met with hoots of regulatory derision at the prospect of yet another Internet service being bundled up with Windows - thus further strangling competition.
But how the mighty have fallen. Now Microsoft is considered to be of such trifling significance in the great scheme of things that the European Commission, which almost obliged Microsoft to split itself up at one stage, can't even be bothered to give the Skype acquisition a closer look. It's hard to imagine such a laissez faire attitude if the acquirer was Google, and Microsoft must feel almost offended by the EC's indifference.
Still, at least it gets its hands on the dominant Internet communications platform, which it can couple with Windows Live Messenger, Outlook, and many other bits and bobs to create a pretty comprehensive unified communications offering. This also gives Microsoft a valuable online brand, at a time when its massive investment in products such as Bing and Windows Phone has yet to bear much fruit.
The EC has yet to formally confirm this decision, but we'd be surprised if the FT reported it as fact unless it was sure. We're reminded that, in order to appease regulators, Microsoft has promised to chill with the bundling and continue to make Skype available on other operating systems.
