The deal is effective in the U.S. for all three companies, and for Yahoo and AOL (but not Microsoft) in Canada.

FORBES: Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL Team Up On Ad Sales

"Bruce Shelly, codesigner of Sid Meier's Civilization , is involved in this project, so expect remarkable things from Age of Empires later this year, " babbles a sycophantic quote from Canada Computes on Microsoft's web page.

FORBES: Sid Meier

Microsoft just announced that its Surface Pro tablet will go on sale February 9th in the US and Canada, with wide retail availability beyond just Microsoft.com and Microsoft Stores.

ENGADGET

Surface will be available for purchase beginning Oct. 26, 2012, at all Microsoft Store locations in the United States and Canada, including in all 34 new holiday stores.

ENGADGET: Microsoft Surface for Windows RT pricing now official: tablet starts at $499, keyboard not included

CinemaNow is majority-owned by Canada's Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, and Microsoft and Blockbuster are also partners.

BBC: Danny DeVito and Martin Lawrence

Microsoft will continue to offer chatrooms for those willing to pay in America, Canada, Japan, Brazil and New Zealand.

ECONOMIST: About morals or money? | The

Yesterday at Microsoft's Government Leaders Forum, in front of 300 leader figures from Canada, Latin America and the US, you apparently outlined a future where one's cellphone will becomes their " digital wallet, " and you'll be able to do things like scan business cards?

ENGADGET: Bill Gates has his say of things

The experiment faltered, and eBay gave up on Skype in 2009, selling a 70% stake to a group of technology investors including Silver Lake Partners, venture capital firms Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, who will make a handsome return on the Microsoft transaction.

WSJ: Microsoft Near Deal to Buy Skype for Nearly $8 Billion

In that way, the launch of the new iPad seems poised to stave off competition from Microsoft's 128GB Surface Pro tablet, due February 9 in the U.S. and Canada.

CNN: Why you might not need Apple's 128GB iPad