Will Europe Approve Microsoft, Yahoo Strategic Partnership?

Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc are all set to secure an approval from the European Commission for their search deal that will see Microsoft Bing search technology powering all the searches on sites owned by Yahoo including Yahoo search, which is rapidly losing share in the global search engine market.

Reuters has reported that the European Commission, which has set a self-imposed deadline of February 19th to announce whether it will approve the deal or block it, is likely to rule in the favour of the deal, after a source close to the matter said that “I expect clearance without any concessions next Friday". 

The search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo, which was announced by the companies in July 2009, will include a 10-year pact in which Microsoft search technology will power Yahoo searches.

Although, the combined market share held by the companies is minuscule when compared to Google search, which saw a fall of 0.3 percent in search engine market share in December.

A deal between two companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft is bound to attract reviews from competition watchdogs as this kind of deal raises doubts about the deal's affect on the market.

However, the US Federal Trade Commission is yet to announce the verdict regarding the fate of the search deal.