Cisco: Customers drove appeal of Skype deal

摘要

Cisco's appeal of the European Commission's approval of the $8.5 billion Microsoft/ Skype union is customer driven, Cisco CEO John Chambers said this week. Addressing a small group of reporters via telepresence at Cisco facilities around North America, Chambers said customer desire for interoperability forced Cisco to appeal the EC ruling. Cisco issued its appeal last week, citing interoperability concerns between Microsoft/Skype and its own video offerings as well as those from other vendors. Cisco and Microsoft are fierce competitors in unified communications and collaboration, and the prospect of Microsoft adding Skype and its user base to the Microsoft Lync collaboration platform has Cisco scrambling to slow the deal and seek concessions. "We have a tremendous amount of respect for Microsoft," Chambers said. "We are going to compete aggressively in collaboration, and partner in data center. Customers expect us to interoperate and work together. Microsoft does not see that as importantly as I do. But it's what we are hearing from customers. They don't only want you to interoperate but expect you to."