Skype to replace Windows Live Messenger?

Hearing whispers on the ground that software giant Microsoft is going to close the doors on Windows Live Messenger is not a surprise, especially when the company already owns Skype. It makes financial as well as business sense – you need not have resources allocated to what many people would have deemed as archaic, especially when you also own a far superior product under your wing. The Verge claims that the “Windows Live Messenger service will be retired in the coming months and integrated into Skype.”

Will an announcement be made later this week to all but confirm that Windows Live Messenger is about to be sent into retirement? Well, we guess it is but a matter of time, so those who have had fantastic memories with Windows Live Messenger, perhaps now would be a good time to make a backup of all your conversation archives as well as take as many screenshots as you want before the service closes down for good. Perhaps Windows Live Messenger might be retained, but it will not come with any more updates unless truly necessary (such as a potential security loophole and the like). Are you still using Windows Live Messenger and the likes of ICQ?