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It's Official: EU Objects to Oracle-Sun Deal

Posted 11/10/09 at 07:07:11 AM  by Paul Lilly

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Coming as a surprise to absolutely no one, the European Union on Monday formally objected to Oracle's proposed takeover of Sun. The EU's hard stance could throw a wrench in the $7.4 billion deal that had already been approved by U.S. officials.

The sole sticking point for the EU is that the deal would give Oracle control over Sun's free MySQL database software. Because Oracle sells its own database software, the EU fears the company would purposely hamstring MySQL in order to boost its own sales.

"The Commission's Statement of Objections reveals a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics," Oracle said in response to the objection. "It is well understood by those knowledgeable about open source software that because MykSQL is open source, it cannot be controlled by anyone. That is the whole point of open source."

Oracle will have an opportunity to respond to the EU's objections before it makes its final ruling on the deal by January 19. Even then, should the EU outright reject the deal, Oracle could file an appeal. The alternative is to back out of acquistion, which would cost Oracle a $260 million breakup fee, the Wall Street Journal reports.

COMMENTS:3
TAGS: sun, oracle, eu, european union, ec, european commission, mysql
COMMENTS
avatarreally?

Submitted by lien_meat on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 11:22am

Ok, the "whole point of open source" I don't believe is that "it cannot be controlled by anyone".  I believe open source software is constantly controlled by a certain group or person.  The linux kernel is a great example.  In the end, Linus decides what gets into the kernel or what doesn't...which is why linux doesn't have switchable process schedulers in the kernel.  Because Linus and the other guys that control the kernel development don't seem to care about process schedulers  that are optimized for different workloads (like the desktop), we don't have switchable process schedulers, but are instead pretty much stuck with one that is actually optimized for servers....and that's a pitty cause there are LOTS of other process schedulers out there, I should be able to switch them whenever I want...
Let's just look at a number of open-source projects:
Apache, Mozilla Firefox (or any other Mozilla product), OpenOffice, and yeah, even MySql (under SUN).
These are more or less completely controlled by the companies that sponsor them.  Can the source be seen? Yes.  Can you submit buggfixes? Yes.  Can you add any given feature at will, sure, if you are willing to branch the project....  But it's unlikely your implementation is going to get used by anyone but yourself unless you make a good business model out of your implementation.  Effectively, a company definately can control an open source software.  Yes, it's POSSIBLE that someone could take the MySql ball and run with it, and make Oracle's future implementation of MySql irrelevant but it's unlikely I think, and it definately SHOULD be used by them to further their business if they are wise at all, and would be.

I'm not sure if I agree or dis-agree with the EU in this case.  Yes, Oracle would use MySql for their benifit and likely make huge profits, and probably control it's development as well. However I'm not sure I want MySql development to be stagnated like it seems to have been for the last year either...I've even considered switching to postgres just because of this (I'm stuck with mysql at work though).   I kinda wish IBM would have bought Sun when they had the chance...but I could be wrong about that outcome.
### I'm an idiot, and I approve this message ###

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avatarSpot on.

Submitted by Taz0 on Tue, 11/10/2009 - 11:40am

That is exactly right. Sun does control MySQL since it's the one putting the money and man-hours into developing it. If Oracle ceases all development of MySQL when it purchases Sun, then it effectively killed the project. Even if someone else picked it up because it was open source, they probably wouldn't have enough resources to keep it a viable project.

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