By Nicholas Carlson, 11:06 AM on Thu Mar 6 2008, 486 views (Edit, to draft, Top, Slurp)

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European antitrust regulators will approve Google's $3.1 billion DoubleClick acquisition later this week, the Financial Times reports. Expect Google's top lawyer David Drummond to soon turn up the heat on Microsoft-Yahoo. Before the EU finally approved Google-DoubleClick, Drummond had reason to stay relatively quiet as the new company formed by Microsoft-Yahoo would obviously create real competition for Google. But with EU approval in hand, that incentive is finished. Last fall, Google CEO Eric Schmidt credited Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with slowing down Google-DoubleClick in Washington and abroad. Think he isn't eager to set his own suits on the attack?