It's not exactly the announcement everybody is waiting for, but Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT - News) and Yahoo (NasdaqGS: YHOO - News) officials are trumpeting that their ad pact has gotten the green light in Canada and Australia. Antitrust authorities in both countries raised no objections. No official statement from Canada (yet) but Australian authorities say they gave the go ahead in part because the two companies had an existing relationship in the country "in which Microsoft utilized Yahoo's paid search platform" and therefore their respective subsidiaries were not competing in that market.

That obviously is not the case here, where the Justice Department is reviewing the deal, but in a joint statement, Microsoft and Yahoo say they "remain hopeful that the agreement will close in early 2010."

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