Microsoft Corp. is on the verge of completing its blockbuster $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn Corp. after the European Union finally agreed to give the deal the thumbs-up.

EU regulators said Tuesday that they had granted approval for the deal, after agencies in the U.S., Canada, Brazil and South Africa had all given it the go-ahead earlier this year. As such, the deal is expected to close “in the coming days,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president and chief legal officer, said in a blog post.

Microsoft revealed its intentions to buy LinkedIn about six months ago, saying it hoped to close on the acquisition by the end of this year. With the EU’s approval now confirmed, it looks like Microsoft will keep to its timetable.

The news will come as a relief to Microsoft, after its competitors had filed complaints to the EU regulators in an effort to block the acquisition. The main antagonist was Salesforce.com Inc., which argued that Microsoft would be able to use LinkedIn’s treasure trove of data to bolster its own customer relationship management products while preventing others from accessing it.

Microsoft had to make several concessions in order to satisfy EU officials, Smith said in his post, but they did not address Salesforce’s concerns. Instead, Smith reaffirmed that Microsoft would not use its leading position with Microsoft Office or Windows to inappropriately promote LinkedIn, or to crush other social networks that compete with LinkedIn.

He said Microsoft had agreed to make its Office Add-In program available to third-party social networks to allow LinkedIn’s rivals to integrate their services with Microsoft’s productivity apps. The company also agreed to give IT administrators the ability to hide LinkedIn’s user interface from users if they choose to do so. That means that if Microsoft ever develops a LinkedIn app or tile for its Windows operating system, PC makers will not be required to pre-install this on machines sold in the EU.

In addition, users will also be allowed to uninstall a LinkedIn app should it ever come pre-installed, and the company has also agreed not to prompt Windows users to install the app. However, the hypothetical app could still be allowed in the Windows Store, and Microsoft is allowed to promote it in other ways.

All in all, Microsoft will likely be pleased with the deal it cut with EU regulators. Although the terms stipulate that Microsoft will need to allow other social networks to access Windows and Office, it will not be forced to hand over LinkedIn’s extremely valuable data to its competitors.

Image credit: Microsoft