Cisco will try to reverse Microsoft's purchase of Skype in Europe
Cisco Systems Inc, the world's leading network equipment maker, will try to convince Europe's second highest court on Wednesday that it should overturn the EU's approval of Microsoft's purchase of Skype.
If Cisco wins the challenge at the Luxembourg-based general court, the European Commission would have to annul its decision, which allowed Microsoft to buy the Internet video and voice company without having to make any concessions.
Cisco, which is appealing together with Italian fixed-line and Internet telephone provider Messagenet SpA, will argue that the Commission made several "manifest errors" in assessing the $8.5 billion Microsoft-Skype deal. It is expected to argue that the combined company's dominant share in the communications market gave it the ability and the incentive to refuse to provide data that would allow rivals to work with the merged firm's products.
