Both companies said they did not expect the deal to face antitrust obstacles. 'As we said when the agreement was announced, we anticipated that this deal will be closely reviewed and we are hopeful it will be approved by early 2010,' Microsoft spokesman Jack

Ward said.

Yahoo stated that both companies 'firmly believe that the information we will be providing will confirm that this deal is not only good for both companies, but it is also good for advertisers, good for publishers, and good for consumers.'

According to web tracking firm Comscore, Google controls about 65 percent of the US search market, compared to Yahoo's 20 percent and Microsoft's 8 percent.