EU approves acquisition of Skype by Microsoft

 　　BRUSSELS, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) --- The European Commission on Friday gave the green light to Microsoft's acquisition of voice and video communication provider Skype, thus removing the last hurdle¹ in the process.

　　According to a statement released by the Commission, "the deal would not significantly impede² effective competition in the European Economic Area (The EU plus Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway) or any substantial part of it."

　　The Commission explained that it found that in the area of consumer communications, the parties' activities overlap³ in video communications, where Microsoft is active through its Windows Live Messenger.

　　However, the Commission considered that there were no competition concerns in this growing market where numerous other players, including Google, were present.

　　Skype was bought by eBay in 2005 at the price of 4.1 billion U.S. dollars, and sold out at 2.75 billion U.S. dollars in 2009. Microsoft declared to take over Skype at a cost of 8.5 billion dollars on May 10, 2011.

1 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

2 impede   

v.妨碍，阻碍，阻止

参考例句：

• One shouldn't impede other's progress.一个人不应该妨碍他人进步。
• The muddy roads impede our journey.我们的旅游被泥泞的道路阻挠了。

3 overlap   

v.重叠，与…交叠；n.重叠

参考例句：

• The overlap between the jacket and the trousers is not good.夹克和裤子重叠的部分不好看。
• Tiles overlap each other.屋瓦相互叠盖。