Cisco to challenge Microsoft's takeover of Skype at EU's top courtFebruary 15, 2012 - 22:49 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Cisco has said it will challenge Microsoft's $8.5bn (£5.4m) takeover of Skype at the EU's top court. According to BBC News, Cisco said conditions needed to be set to ensure Microsoft would not block other video conferencing services. In October, the European Union had ruled the deal would not impede competition. But Cisco has called on the European Commission to introduce open standards similar to those used for mobile phones. "Cisco does not oppose the merger, but believes the European Commission should have placed conditions that would ensure greater standards-based interoperability," Cisco's video conferencing head Martin De Beer wrote in a blog post. Skype has over 650 million users worldwide. Its takeover by Microsoft, announced in May last year, is the software giant's single biggest acquisition. Cisco offers its own video conferencing service called WebEx. Open standards for video services would potentially allow calls to be made between WebEx and Skype, as well as other services like Google Video. Without such a standard, Mr De Beer said Microsoft could control "the future of video communications". Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | The Power of One Dram to benefit Road of Life charity The companies inform that the May beneficiary of The Power of One Dram is the “Road of Life” charitable organization. Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. Aliyev says no need for mediators in Armenia-Azerbaijan process Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that Baku and Yerevan do not mediators in the process of normalizing relations. |