Image via CrunchBase

Technology giant and leader of the desktop operating system market Microsoft has announced that it will soon "retire" its instant messaging tool called Windows Live Messenger and switch to Skype. Microsoft already owns Skype, having bought the company for $8.5 billion about 18 months ago.

The company has announced that it will stop supporting Live Messenger by March 2013, except in China, where it will continue to support the older messenger for some more time. Since it owns Skype, this should be seen as part of Microsoft's strategy to offer a better messaging solution to its users.