The Group of Eight (G8), also known as Group of Seven and Russia, is an international forum for the governments of

1. Canada
2. France
3. Germany
4. Italy
5. Japan
6. Russia
7. United Kingdom
8. United States of America

In addition, the European Union participates and is represented by the president of the European Council and the President of the European Commission. G8 ministers also meet throughout the year, such as the G7/8 finance ministers (who meet four times a year), G8 foreign ministers or G8 environment ministers.

Google has officially closed the deal on acquiring online advertising company DoubleClick Inc. after receiving approval from European regulators.

European regulators have today cleared its $3.1billion bid. The final hurdle in the completion of its deal has now been overcome by Google.

European Commission gave its approval for the deal, saying that the acquisition didn’t pose a significant threat to competition in the European online advertising market.

Eric Schmidt, in the Official Google Blog wrote ,

I’m pleased to share the news that we completed our acquisition of DoubleClick today. Although it’s been nearly a year since we announced our intention to acquire DoubleClick last April, we are no less excited today about the benefits that the combination of our two companies will bring to the online advertising market.