It has been confirmed by TechCrunch.com yesterday that the MSN Groups service will cease to operate as part of Microsoft on 21 FEB 2009. Prior to this confirmation, various mailing lists and forums had been discussing the rumor that circulated about the closure of MSN Groups either by end of this year or early next year. A similar confirmation has been released by Charlotte Jones, Group Product Manager at Microsoft.

Apparently, the reason for the closure of MSN Groups is attributed to the launch of Microsoft Windows Live Groups in November 2008, and Microsoft do not want to have two “competing products” inside their fence.

The good news is that the operations of MSN Groups has been turned-over to Multiply.com, an emerging name in social networking, especially here in the Philippines (next to Friendster).