It’s not exactly the announcement everybody is waiting for, but Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) officials are trumpeting that their ad pact has gotten the green light in Canada and Australia. Antitrust authorities in both countries raised no objections. No official statement from Canada (yet) but Australian authorities say they gave the go ahead in part because the two companies had an existing relationship in the country “in which Microsoft utilized Yahoo’s paid search platform” and therefore their respective subsidiaries were not competing in that market.

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CFO Chris Liddell is resigning at the end of the year; he will be replaced by Peter Klein, the CFO of Microsoft’s business division. Liddell had served as Microsoft’s CFO for the last four years and had overseen the company’s recent cost-cutting efforts, which included the first mass layoffs in Microsoft’s history. Unclear what exactly is driving Liddell’s decision to leave now, although his departure comes just as Microsoft’s financial performance seems to be improving. Microsoft beat expectations last quarter, after missing analyst revenue estimates by $1 billion during the prior quarter.

In a statement, Microsoft says Liddell is looking “at a number of opportunities that will expand his career beyond being a CFO”—which implies that he may be looking for a CEO job. One of Liddell’s predecessors as Microsoft CFO—Gregory Maffei—went on to succeed John Malone as CEO of Liberty Media (NSDQ: LINTA). A spokesman says Liddell’s departure is amicable.

CBS should be pleased with its choice to allow Microsoft to sync Xbox LIVE to Last.fm, as the partnership has already netted the streaming music service nearly a million new subscribers. Last.fm went live on Xbox last Tuesday, and both companies are already hyping the deal as a success in terms of the numbers. CBS (NYSE: CBS) says it broke a record for the number of new profiles created in a 24-hour period, and that Xbox LIVE users had already streamed more than 120 million minutes worth of music.

Less clear is whether there is money changing hands: neither company would comment on whether Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is paying CBS a rev-share, since only Gold (paying) Xbox LIVE subscribers get access to Last.fm.

This is a bit of a surprise because we were made to understand that John Byrne had decided to stay, as BusinessWeek is ready to start its life under Bloomberg. Now comes the news that he is leaving. He was the executive editor of the mag and EIC of the website since 2005. The mag’s editor-in-chief Steven Adler already decided he wouldn’t stay a few weeks ago, and was replaced by 37-year old ME of Time.com, Josh Tyrangiel. Min says he is relocating to San Francisco (where his wife and BW alumna Kate Rodler, is based) with plans to launch a new digital media company. No word yet on who will take over as digital head, both on the biz and edit side. The memo from Byrne, sent out earlier today, after the jump:

Considering the circulation boost newspapers have gotten this year from their e-paper offerings, the New York Times hopes to attract some more new subs through a cross-promotion effort with Samsung. According to the NYT’s pitch, if you order a one-year subscription to Times Reader 2.0, the company will give you a $100 discount toward the purchase of a Samsung Go netbook, the lightweight computer that retails for under $400.

Facebook has said it is in no rush to file for an IPO, but the company continues to take small steps towards one. The latest: It’s creating a new class of stock which carries additional voting power; the stock will be given to all existing shareholders, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

A Facebook spokesman tells us the company is making the change “because existing shareholders wanted to maintain control over voting on certain issues to help ensure the company can continue to focus on the long-term to build a great business.” He adds that it is not a signal that the company is planning to go public.

Time Inc.‘s Instyle Weddings has become the latest casualty of the magazine industry’s larger woes, Gawker reports. The quarterly offshoot of InStyle will publish its last issue on Dec. 25. Nine staffers will be laid off. The move comes as parent Time Inc. is reportedly close to signing a deal with rival publishers to create an “iTunes for mags.” The joint venture is intended to give the publishers a revenue boost and stanch the loss of readers and ad pages.

»  News Corp (NYSE: NWS) cutting a deal with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) for link exclusivity might run into some legal barriers. [Daily Finance]

»  Biz Stone said Twitter is looking to make more acquisitions in 2010. [Reuters]

»  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) lost 5% of local ad business from last year, with most of it going to Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). [ClickZ]

»  Yahoo’s search box is updated to display “smart” information like stock symbols and current prices. [Search Engine Land]

»  Fark.com and USA Today, media properties with very different sensibilities, have struck a partnership. [NY Times]

Updated: Until today one of the biggest differences between the Kindle 2 and its top wireless e-reader competitors—aside from sheer availability during the holidays—was the inability to use the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) device for native PDFs. Some PDFs could be converted to read on the Kindle but as some users know all too well, the process was flawed; some of my own efforts came out garbled and unreadable. (It’s not that Amazon couldn’t do it: the Kindle DX, which is also getting some updates, came with it.) That shouldn’t be an issue any more: Amazon says that the Kindle 2 units shipping now have native PDF and 85 percent more battery life when wireless is on.

Canadian cable giant Rogers Communications has launched an ad-supported online video service that THR is calling a “Canadianized Hulu.” But we think it’s more like one of the first viable attempts to launch a “TV Everywhere” service—since the premium, ad-supported video content will only be accessible to Rogers’ 2.3 million cable subscribers. People will be able to watch the content on any computer after they’ve been verified as a Rogers customer.

Rogers On Demand Online is slated to launch in Canada Nov. 30; subscribers will get access to content from 15 channels the company owns (either in whole or partly), including A&E Canada, Rogers Sportsnet and G4 Canada, as well as shows fed in from Warner TV, and Michael Eisner’s Vuguru (which Rogers took a “multimillion dollar” stake in, in October).

Joost isn’t dead, it’s just getting more advertising.

Adconion‘s main aim in acquiring the video firm is to offer its web player to brand marketing clients, CEO Tyler Moebius told paidContent.org. But Adconion’s acquisition also includes the Joost.com trademark and rights for much of Joost’s TV content…

Though Joost itself had decided to exit the consumer video space to focus on white-labeling, Adconion will continue to operate the Joost.com consumer site and will go on seeking new Joost.com video content, he said…

Has the tide turned against bedroom P2P file-sharers in the music industry’s epic fight against piracy? The IFPI’s branch in Sweden—the home of illegal file-sharing—is reporting that Swedish music sales rose 18 percent in the first nine months of the year, after seven years of consecutive decline, following the introduction the anti-piracy IPRED law (via Guardian.co.uk). Of that increase, nine percent comes from a rise in physical sales, while a whopping 80 percent is attributed to digital revenue.

Just to be clear on the IFPI’s claim to have turned the tide on piracy: The group isn’t offering new data on the incidence of piracy. Rather, it is taking figures showing that legal music sales in Sweden are up, and then extrapolating from that to say that piracy must be decreasing there. Note: consumer research has shown that committed file-sharers tend to be music fans who spend more on legitimate music services than non-file-sharers. So it is possible that both digital-music sales and piracy are on the increase…