Last week Patchou proudly announced his Most Valuable Professional accolade awarded by Microsoft for his expertise in the development of MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. The news spurred criticism from fellow MVPs due to Patchou"s Messenger Plus product being bundled with an optional adware installer. Neowin reported on such a response earlier today.
Microsoft today issued the following statement, stripping Patchou of his MVP status:
"Cyril Paciullo was awarded with MVP status this year on the basis of his technical expertise and strong community contribution. However, his active MVP Award status was revoked as soon as the extent of the connection between his application and spyware was made apparent to the MVP Program."Despite this recent development, supporters of Patchou are praising Microsoft"s initial acknowledgement of the highly skilled work he did, stating that "the optional adware doesn"t devalue the quality of the addon in the eyes of its millions of users".