IBM's $5 billion acquisition of business intelligence software vendor Cognos took a step forward on Thursday as <A HREF="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/25/EU-signs-off-on-IBM-Cognos-acquisition_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/25/EU-signs-off-on-IBM-Cognos-acquisition_1.html">European regulators gave their approval</A> to the deal. After examining the acquisition, the European Commission said in a statement that it "would not give rise to competition concerns, since the parties' combined market share would be moderate."

IBM announced its intention to buy Cognos, based in Ottawa, in November, saying it hoped to combine the Cognos software with IBM's back-end database products. They hope to close the deal by the end of March, but there are still a few regulatory requirements to be met, including the approval of Canada's minister of industry.