Two down, two to go for the Microsoft-Yahoo search ads deal. Both the Canadian and Australiation anti-trust authorities have just cleared the controversial deal. In a joint announced published by SeattlePI blog, Yahoo and Microsoft jointly stated that:
“Microsoft and Yahoo! have been notified that Australian and Canadian authorities have separately concluded their reviews and have no objections to our proposed search agreement.”
The two companies also said that their deal will pave the way for a more competitive marketplace for the benefit of consumers, advertisers, publishers, and hope that the deal will be closed by 2010.
The deal did not find any problem passing through the scrutiny of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission since Microsoft and Yahoo already have an existing partnership in Australia. In fact, the ACCC opined that the deal would make both Microsoft and Yahoo a worthy competitor to Google.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Competition Bureau has also finished reviewing the search ad deal although they have not yet issued any public statement approving it.
With that, the deal now awaits the approval of both the European and American anti-trust bodies, which in the opinion of many analysts will give Microsoft and Yahoo a hard time.
