A few days ago, Cisco has made another attempt to block Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype, telling the European Court that such a deal could create a monopoly for the Redmond-based tech giant.
A Microsoft spokesperson told us in a mail stated that Cisco is actually trying to degrade the quality of Skype services with such attempt, pointing to the initial investigation started by the European Commission back in 2012 when antitrust regulators approved the deal.
“In 2011 the European Commission conducted a thorough investigation of the acquisition, in which Cisco actively participated, and approved the deal. In today’s hearing, Cisco presented no new evidence. Whilst claiming to seek interoperability they actually are aiming to force Microsoft to re-engineer Skype and degrade the quality of service,” the statement reads.
Cisco, together with Italian fixed-line and Internet telephone services provider Messagenet SpA have appealed the initial EU decision, claiming that regulators made several “manifest errors” during the investigation.