Italian Software Maker Contests Microsoft's Purchase of Skype By KEVIN J. O'BRIEN <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/kevin_j_obrien/...> Published: September 28, 2011 BERLIN --- Reviving arguments that have dogged Microsoft <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/microsoft_corporation/...> in Europe for nearly two decades, an Italian software maker is asking European officials to block Microsoft's $8.5 billion purchase of Skype <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/skype_technologies_sa/...>, the Internet phone service, unless it is removed from Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows Office platform. In the past, the European Commission has been sympathetic to complaints about Microsoft's strategy of "bundling" popular applications with Windows, eventually requiring the software maker to make concessions on its media player and Internet browser. But legal experts were split over whether the latest complaint, filed Sept. 20 by Messagenet, a company based in Milan that is a rival to Skype Internet's phone service, would complicate or prevent European approval of the takeover, which would be the largest in Microsoft's history and the largest takeover in the technology sector this year. [...] Continua qui: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/technology/italian-software-maker-contests...