The acquisition had been held up by government approval processes, the last of which came from China over the weekend.

As expected, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha is stepping down; Dennis Woodside, who oversaw the acquisition on Google’s side, will replace him. Woodside was formerly Google’s president of the Americas region, and before that, built Google’s businesses in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia.

The Motorola deal gives Google access to some 17,000 patents granted and another 7,500 pending, across a wide range of technologies — 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, and video compression and decompression — plus Motorola’s phone, tablet, set-top box and other hardware businesses.

Woodside said in a statement, “Our aim is simple: to focus Motorola Mobility’s remarkable talent on fewer, bigger bets, and create wonderful devices that are used by people around the world.”

Google CEO Larry Page added in a blog post that he expected the Motorola team “will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come.”

The Googorola leadership team will also include Regina Dugan, the recently departed director of DARPA, who will lead an internal lab.

Other Woodside hires include Mark Randall, who ran the supply chain at Amazon and was at Nokia; Vanessa Wittman, the former CFO of Marsh & McLennan; Scott Sullivan, the former head of HR at Visa and Nvidia; and Gary Briggs, the former Google VP of consumer marketing.

Google did not say it planned to make any layoffs, but did specify that quite a few of Motorola leaders are staying on in areas like product development and legal.

And, as BoomTown wrote yesterday, so the war of attrition for Yahoo begins.

Not with a bang, but a whimper. And so much whine, I am considering serving up a nice plate of cheese to all players.

But while the first moves by Microsoft (MSFT), which is seeking to take over Yahoo (YHOO), seem a bit weak, it is likely the more significant bombs will start flying next week.

But not quite yet.

First, came a not-so-subtle insinuation from Microsoft Steve Ballmer that he could take his marbles and go home any time.

He noted yesterday in a speech in Milan (Milan? OK, we’ll go with it) that the software giant is “prepared to move forward alone without Yahoo.”

A show of hands of who actually believes this claim, please, a classic go-fish negotiating ploy? No one? We thought so.

Then, comes the artfully worded Wall Street Journal story today, in which it is revealed that some at Microsoft are skeptical of the deal.

Apparently, Microsofties are worried that the job of merging Yahoo into Microsoft will take precious attention away from, well, them!

Well, that’s been the biggest open secret at Microsoft. Almost anyone you talk to notes that the Yahoo deal is risky, but it would be done no matter what due to Ballmer’s determination to use Yahoo to better hammer at rival Google (GOOG).

“This is Ballmer’s war,” said one Microsoft employee to me recently, who also noted that it is still a good move for Microsoft, despite the slowness of the attack. “I doubt he will surrender.”

Well, BoomTown suggested Microsoft do so back in mid-February in a post, noting that Ballmer might do better to use the $41 billion to buy up every hot start-up in Silicon Valley–Digg, Meebo, Slide and even the hopelessly high-valued Facebook–and still have money left over to buy everyone a tank of gas.

The Journal story also listed previously reported names of possible directors for a proxy slate Microsoft must nominate to replace Yahoo’s current board.

They include, noted the story, “former Nextel Partners Inc. CEO John Chapple, former Grey Global Group Inc. CEO Edward Meyer, Jaynie Studenmund, the former chief operating officer of Overture Services Inc., which was later acquired by Yahoo, and former Adelphia Communications Corp. Chief Financial Officer Vanessa Wittman, according to people familiar with the matter.”

Not to be whiny about it or anything, but with no truly prominent Internet executive or figure among these director possibilities so far, BoomTown would have to say we are profoundly underwhelmed by the list.

Thus, we await more powerful forces.

And that might be sooner than later. Microsoft will announce its earnings this afternoon, which–if they are strong and lift the price of Microsoft stock and, therefore, the Yahoo offer–could be the first big gun to fire in the proxy fight.