Microsoft's move to bring instant messaging rivals into its fold, along with the Redmond, Wash.-based developer's continued push to put presence into its core applications, gives it a good shot at becoming as big in IM as it is in enterprise e-mail with Exchange, a research firm said Wednesday.
"Microsoft's ultimate goal is to own the end-user experience around real-time collaboration and communications," said Mike Gotta, a principal analyst at Meta Group. "And the AOL/Yahoo deal gives Microsoft a major leg up."
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