Microsoft-Yahoo search deal gets the green light

Microsoft’s ambitions to take over Yahoo’s internet search and search advertising businesses have been given the go head by the US and European regulators.

The ten year partnership will see Yahoo use Microsoft’s Bing search engine on its site. Microsoft’s Bing will direct search queries to PPC advertisements on Yahoo. The deal will see Microsoft keep 12% of search revenues under the agreement, while Yahoo will receive the other 88% of earnings and offload many of the costs of operating a search system.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer commented “Although we are just at the beginning of this process, we have reached an exciting milestone,”. The pair said they wish to begin the partnership soon and have it completed by early 2012.

The deal is clearly going to see the two take on the market leader Google but it will be market share that ultimately determines the battle of the search market.