The final hurdle in the completion of its deal to buy Doubleclick has now been overcome by Google: European regulators have today cleared its $3.1BN bid. Eric Schmidt, writing in the Official Google Blog, admitted 'As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount' - and Google's stock rose nearly 5% as a result, up from near its 52-week low of $413 per share on Monday.

"Because we have been waiting for regulatory approval for our acquisition, we've been limited by law in the extent to which we could conduct detailed integration planning to map our way forward," Schmidt wrote. "That work will begin in earnest now. Although we don’t have detailed plans to announce today, we will communicate regularly with you about our progress in integrating our two companies."

Of course part and parcel of that integration will involve pink slips:

"As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason we’ll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees."

"As the combination of Google and DoubleClick delivers better, more relevant display ads," Schmidt explained, "we're also looking forward to delivering an improved online experience to users."

"Because user trust is paramount to the success of our business, users will continue to benefit from our commitment to protecting user privacy following this acquisition. And our scale and infrastructure mean that users will also be spending less time waiting for web pages to load. Ultimately, we believe that by combining our advertising network with DoubleClick's display ad serving products, and by investing resources in the display ad business, we will be able to help publishers and advertisers generate more revenue. That in turn will fuel the creation of even more rich and diverse content for Internet users everywhere."