The FTC has just cleared Microsoft acquisition of aQuantive, which is interesting because they have yet to clear Google and Yahoo’s much smaller deals for online advertising companies (Google’s is buying DoubleClick while Yahoo’s is buying Right Media). I can’t help but wonder now, almost a decade after the United States vs. Microsoft, if the FTC is starting to feel bad for the software giant they once went after with a vengeance?

Microsoft’s deal for aQuantive is for $6 billion – in cash – while Google’s is a $3.1 billion deal and Yahoo’s a “mere” $680 million. Both Google and Yahoo’s deals were announce in April, while Microsoft wasn’t announced until May and yet here we are with Microsoft getting the duffel bags full of cash ready while Google and Yahoo wait in holding.

Certainly I don’t know all of the logistics on how these investigations go down, but I would guess that Microsoft was probably cleared because they are running a distant 3rd in the online advertising world to Google and Yahoo. Still it seems odd that given what went down with Microsoft and and government in the past that the government would be quick to clear anything they did – especially since they are still in market cap terms a larger company than Google and Yahoo combined!

Maybe Microsoft has some advice to bestow upon Google and Yahoo on how to handle the antitrust cops. Do you think they’ll share the knowledge? No.