The European Union has given the thumbs up to Microsoft’s US$26 billion acquisition of professional networking site LinkedIn. To clinch the deal Microsoft had to agree to safeguards to assuage antitrust concerns.

Under the agreement, Microsoft must allow other professional networking sites access to its Office applications and cloud-computing services for the next five years. It must also grant computer manufacturers the option not to install the LinkedIn shortcut on desktop devices.

The EU decision is a blow for Salesforce.com, which opposed the merger after losing to Microsoft in the bidding