微軟棄用MSN轉戰Skype:中國大陸除外?大綱

Goodbye, Windows Live Messenger!
再見了，MSN！

As the BBC notes, Microsoft will soon be retiring its instant message chat tool and will instead be encouraging users to use Skype。
援引BBC消息，微軟很快就會讓即時聊天工具MSN退休了，取而代之的是鼓勵用戶使用Skype。

"Skype and Messenger are coming together," wrote Tony Bates, President of the Skype Division at Microsoft, on Tuesday. "We will retire Messenger in all countries worldwide in the first quarter of 2013 (with the exception of mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available)."
微軟公司Skype部門的負責人Tony Bates於週二表示，“Skype和Messenger將合併。我們會在2013年第一季度在全球各個國家停用MSN(中國大陸除外，可繼續使用)。”

Brian Hall,general manager of Microsoft's Windows Live unit, had a similar message for users on the Windows blog。
微軟負責MSN的總經理Brian Hall在其微軟的博客中也發佈了類似的消息。

Tuesday's announcement comes several months after the software giant bought Skype for $8.5 billion in May 2011.
週二的這則聲明在微軟於2011年5月以85億美元的價格收購了Skype以後的幾個月後發出。

Still, even though Microsoft promises that Skype will offer "a better experience and [an] even stronger network," the Windows instant messaging tool will undoubtedly be missed by many。
儘管微軟承諾Skype將會提供“更好的體驗和更強大的網絡”，毫無疑問，還是會有很多人想念MSN的。