微软弃用MSN转战Skype:中国大陆除外?大纲

Goodbye, Windows Live Messenger!
再见了，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，微软很快就会让即时聊天工具MSN退休了，取而代之的是鼓励用户使用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)."
微软公司Skype部门的负责人Tony Bates于周二表示，“Skype和Messenger将合并。我们会在2013年第一季度在全球各个国家停用MSN(中国大陆除外，可继续使用)。”

Brian Hall,general manager of Microsoft's Windows Live unit, had a similar message for users on the Windows blog。
微软负责MSN的总经理Brian Hall在其微软的博客中也发布了类似的消息。

Tuesday's announcement comes several months after the software giant bought Skype for $8.5 billion in May 2011.
周二的这则声明在微软于2011年5月以85亿美元的价格收购了Skype以后的几个月后发出。

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。
尽管微软承诺Skype将会提供“更好的体验和更强大的网络”，毫无疑问，还是会有很多人想念MSN的。