Chinese competition authorities granted approval to Nokia to sell its mobile division to Microsoft earlier this week, paving the way for one of the most important mobile acquisitions of the year.

Microsoft announced its intentions to completely buy out Nokia's mobile division last year in an attempt to bolster its patent Rolodex and wireless outreach. The deal has been delayed amidst fears that Microsoft and Nokia could abuse their massive patent collection and raise licensing costs. Seems they've convinced most authorities.

"The regulatory approval process has involved a thorough review of Nokia's patent licensing practices by several competition authorities around the world. During that process, no authority has challenged Nokia's compliance with its FRAND undertakings related to standard-essential patents (licensing on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms) or requested that Nokia make changes to its licensing program or royalty terms," Nokia said in a press release Tuesday.

Microsoft and Nokia have received approval from the United States, Europe, China and "numerous other jurisdictions."

The two companies currently operate as independent entities until the deal is finalized. Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia was supposed to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2014, but approval delays have pushed that date back a month.

"We wanted to provide a brief update on the status of the regulatory process for approval of Microsoft's acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business. We are nearing the final stages of our global regulatory approval process -- to date we have received approvals from regulatory authorities in 15 markets on five continents. Currently, we are awaiting approval confirmation in the final markets. This work has been progressing, and we expect to close next month, in April 2014," Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith wrote in a blog post late March.

Nokia, once the most popular cellphone manufacturer on the planet, has since fallen far behind competitors such as Samsung and LG. Microsoft, on the other hand, is looking to increase its footprint in the mobile market, and hopes Nokia technologies will help it do just that. A recent comScore report reveals that Microsoft's mobile market share in the United States stands at around 3.5 percent.

Microsoft, which has slowly been building its Windows Phone base (largely through Nokia's Lumia smartphone series), will have an interesting year ahead of it. Nokia recently released its first Android phone, the Nokia X, and Android is a major competitor to Windows Phone. Microsoft has been opening up its Windows ecosystem to other operating systems recently, but the real question is how Microsoft will let Nokia's mobile division pursue Android devices once completely acquired. Microsoft executive vice president of operating systems Terry Myerson has stated that Microsoft will continue to support the Nokia X as "more users of our applications and services is fantastic." Still, it will be interesting to see whether Microsoft will end up using its massive coffers to help promote an Android phone.