Microsoft Set to Win EU Approval for $8.5B Skype Buy

Microsoft(MSFT) is set to win European Union approval for its planned $8.5 billion acquisition of online telephone service Skype, according to the Financial Times.

Joaqun Almunia, the EU competition commissioner, is to give the proposed deal the OK without any remedies, despite complaints from would-be rivals over Microsoft's "bundling" the software with Windows, the newspaper said.

EU approval would follow the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's go-ahead in June.

Competition reviews are still under way in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and Taiwan, the FT said.

Microsoft's acquisition of Skype, its biggest-ever, is expected by the end of the year.

-- Written by Joseph Woelfel

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