Microsoft to buy internet calling software company

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, said on Wednesday it will acquire a privately held, Swiss-based company that develops technology to route and manage phone calls placed over the Web.

Microsoft did not disclose how much it paid for media-streams.com AG, a Zurich, Switzerland-based technology company with 23 employees.

Microsoft said it would integrate media-streams.com's technology with collaboration software in its Office division, which will eventually allow users to add incoming phone calls to conferences, route calls and host teleconferences between people in far-flung locations.

Microsoft is betting that advances in software technology will allow business users to connect their phones to computers to make phone-based communications more efficient. VoIP phone calls are carried over internet networks rather than circuits, making it easier to make them work with software programs.

"Integrating voice communications with the rich collaboration capabilities of the Microsoft Office System will enable exciting new collaboration scenarios that will improve individual and team collaboration," Anoop Gupta, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Real-Time Collaboration Group said in a statement.

In September, online marketplace eBay agreed to buy web voice calling provider Skype for US$4.1 billion to add free web telephone calls to its online auctions and fuel growth.