Microsoft Replacing Windows Live Spaces with WordPress.com

Microsoft and Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, announced today that the Windows Live Spaces blogging service will be phased out in favor of WordPress.com. Users of the service will have the ability to transfer their blogs via a new migration utility beginning today.
In a post on Inside Windows Live, Dharmesh Mehta, Director, Windows Live Product Management, said:

“Over the last few weeks, we’ve spent a good bit of time talking about our approach to partnering with the web, and as part of that, how we’re deeply integrating with the leading consumer services that you find most valuable….
As we looked at customers’ blogging needs and what different companies were providing, we were particularly interested in what WordPress ().com is doing….
So rather than having Windows Live invest in a competing blogging service, we decided the best thing we could do for our customers was to give them a great blogging solution through WordPress.com.”

Automattic’s Paul Kim added on the Just Another WordPress Weblog:

“Over a six month period, beginning today, Windows Live Spaces users will have the option to move their blogs to WordPress.com. To make this possible, we’ve created a brand new importer for Windows Live Spaces to WordPress.com. New Windows Live users will also be offered a WordPress.com blog when they choose to create a new blog.”

WordPress.com currently hosts nearly 14 million blogs. If even half of the 30 million blogs on Windows Live Spaces make the transition, it’s a major client acquisition for the WordPress.com service.