So like the US?

In the US corruption is pretty literally institutionalized. It's called lobbying.

DarXyde
"Perhaps an honest interpretation is that US, CA, NZ, and UK are currently holdouts."

-CA and NZ are not holdouts, they only put their "concern" in writing, but they have took no NO official/legal action to stop it. Microsoft lawyers stated this during the hearing that Canada's letter was late, they missed their own deadline to oppose the deal.

Plus:

It's literally right there in the news article you're commenting on:
"While New Zealand expressed doubts about the deal and Canada expressed its disapproval with a letter, neither has formally moved to block the acquisition yet."

When you get basic facts wrong and then go one a spill about corruption & other govts lack scrutiny, it doesn't really hold water considering China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and all of the EU minus the UK are NOT the "developing world" you speak of -hell while South Africa is behind in some areas they have a highly developed economy AND they all approved the deal, so this is hardly about a bunch of "developeing worlds" with curruption that approved. So first you spread misinformation and then your point seems irrelevant.

"CA and NZ are not holdouts, they only put their "concern" in writing, but they have took no NO official/legal action to stop it."

So because they didn't respond in time ... They're in favor of it? They missed an opportunity to block it, but that does not mean they are in favor of it going through. Perhaps you're of the opinion that "holdout" is too strong of a word. If we're being pedantic, sure.

"While New Zealand expressed doubts about the deal and Canada expressed its disapproval with a letter, neither has formally moved to block the acquisition yet."

This is skepticism. Same point though: the absence of outright rejection is not the presence of support.

"When you get basic facts wrong and then go one a spill about corruption & other govts lack scrutiny, it doesn't really hold water considering China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and all of the EU minus the UK are NOT the "developing world" you speak of -hell while South Africa is behind in some areas they have a highly developed economy AND they all approved the deal, so this is hardly about a bunch of "developeing worlds" with curruption that approved."

Swing and a miss.

I already addressed the developed Asian world, stating that many aren't looking at this in great detail because the impact to their own markets are limited. Try to keep up. I even mentioned SK might have a greater interest in it but this deal going through isn't going to impact them because there's a sizeable PC/mobile market there.

And another thing because you're way off base: I am not speaking ill of the developing world. I was born in one developing country, raised and educated in the developed world, and live in another developing country now. Do I speak ill of their governments? Absolutely. I want these countries to thrive and find their behaviors antithetical to that end. Many are run by self-interest who became billionaires as public servants their entire lives. My point is not as irrelevant as you're making it out—you just failed to make a simple connection: don't assume these decisions are being made by serious people. I'll extend an olive branch here so you don't think I'm shitting on developing countries: the United States is arguably one of the worst global offenders in terms of corruption, and its FTC is not really in favour of this.

I present this information to you as anecdotes (and nowhere do I hide that) and even let you know that you can take what you want from that. You seem to have assumed I said that means you outright cannot trust the other regulators. I'm telling you that the number of approvals does not mean this deal should not be approached with skepticism.

If that isn't clear, I don't know what to tell you. Carry on.