According to the folks over at The Verge, Microsoft is planning on retiring their popular Windows Live Messenger service in favor of Skype, with an announcement possibly coming as soon as this week. Messenger will be integrated into Skype in some way, although it wasn"t stated whether Microsoft will force people currently using WLM to switch to using Skype.
The Skype team has been working hard to integrate Microsoft accounts over the past few months, with the option now available in the latest version of Skype to sign in using your Microsoft account as well as Facebook account. Naturally this is all part of the big plan for Skype, which Microsoft acquired back in May 2011 for $8.5 billion.
If the rumor is correct, Windows Live Messenger will be no more in a couple of months" time, marking the end to one of the most loved instant messaging clients of the past ten years.
Source: The Verge | Image via Skype