Without the approval of the FTC, which governs anti-trust issues in the US and has overseen a decade of Microsoft-Government anti-trust clashes, the acquisition would almost certainly have been scuttled.
The FTC enforces a waiting period after a company announces an acquisition to review potential anti-competitive issues that arise out of large mergers.
But in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, aQuantive said the mandatory waiting period had passed without the FTC requesting any additional information.
A special meeting of aQuantive shareholders is now scheduled for the second week of August to vote on the Microsoft offer.
Like Microsoft, aQuantive is based in Seattle.
The acquisition was announced in May, just weeks after Google said it would pay US$3.1 billion for the online ad giant DoubleClick. Microsoft has complained that the Google/DoubleClick deal is anti-competitive.
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