Microsoft, Yahoo deal cleared in battle against Google

BRUSSELS-Microsoft Corpand Yahoo Inc said Thursday they have won unconditional approval from regulators in the United States and Europe for a planned search deal that would challenge market leader Google Inc.

Under the terms of the partnership struck in July last year,
Microsoft’s Bing becomes the search engine for both, while Yahoo focuses
on attracting big advertisers.
The deal was approved without restrictions by both the U.S.
Department of Justice and the European Commission. The companies said
they plan to begin the partnership in the coming days and be completed
by early 2012.
Google had 90 percent of the global search market compared with 7.4
percent for a combined Yahoo and Bing, according to November data from
Web research firm StatCounter.
“The (European) Commission’s first phase market investigation has
indicated that scale is an important element to be an effective
competitor in search advertising,” the EU executive said in a statement.
It said the companies expected their partnership to strengthen
Microsoft against Google.
The Commission said the deal would not significantly impede competition in Europe. Sources told Reuters last week the deal would be cleared without the companies offering any concessions.