Microsoft and Yahoo search deal is approved

THE INTERNET SEARCH deal between Microsoft and Yahoo has been approved by US regulators, following its approval by European counterparts earlier this week.
Today the firms said that they've received clearance to go ahead with the deal, without restrictions, from the US Department of Justice, and added that they will start to put it in place.
The deal will see Microsoft take over Yahoo's algorithmic search platforms, while Yahoo will work as the sales force for both companies premium advertising businesses. In effect, when users perform a search on either site they will see Bing's search results, surrounded by contextual and user specific links and advertisements.
"This breakthrough search alliance means Yahoo! can focus even more on our own innovative search experience," said Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. "Yahoo! gets to do what we do best: combine our science and technology with compelling content to build personally relevant online experiences for our users and customers."
The Vole's CEO Steve Ballmer added, "Although we are just at the beginning of this process, we have reached an exciting milestone. I believe that together, Microsoft and Yahoo! will promote more choice, better value and greater innovation to our customers as well as to advertisers and publishers."
A website has been put together to tell users and customers about what the deal will mean to them. Unfortunately for Microsoft, when we visited we were greeted with an application error.
Let's hope they get their merged search operation working better.