Microsoft has offered rival companies access to its Outlook programmes in order to ease any potential conflict with the EU's antitrust regulators. Following Microsoft's 26 billion US dollar acquisition of LinkedIn, the EU has been examining the deal in order to check against any misuse of large amounts of user data crossing between companies. The idea behind allowing rival companies, such as the German professional social network Xing, to use Outlook, is that the move might prevent any developing tensions between Microsoft and the EU. This comes at a time where the regulator has recently been tough on large companies who have access to large amounts of data, such as Google who is currently fighting against a recent EU ruling.Â
