Microsoft has given the green light to the acquisition of Internet telephone service Skype, said Friday the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the American authority on competition.
Microsoft announced in May its intention to acquire Skype for $ 8.5 billion, the largest acquisition in the history of the Redmond company and therefore a gamble financially in the areas of mobile and the Internet against competitors such as Google.
The validation of the operation was included in the list of approvals that the FTC publishes several times a week.
As of the end of 2010, the Group had approximately nine million users of its paid services, each generating eight dollars per month. Microsoft plans to integrate Skype with a wide range of products, including its phone and Windows email program Outlook.
Skype is used by an average of 145 million people each month and remains popular with small and medium enterprises.