Print
At this stage in the takeover game, there's little doubt Oracle will soon add Sun Microsystems to its portfolio, and according to Oracle, it's going to happen soon.
"We expect the European Commission to unconditionally clear the acquisition of Sun in January," said Oracle president Safra Catz yesterday, as the firm reported its second quarter results. "I want to thank all of our customers for the overwhelming support they have given us during this process."
Unconditionally? Only if ignoring the concessions Oracle made in order to get to this point. Just last week Oracle promised to preserve the viability of the free and open-source MySQL database application that it would acquire in the deal. More specifically, the company promised to extend MySQL's existing commercial licenses for up to five years, while also making binding guarantees not to pursue intellectual property claims against companies and individuals who already use MySQL. Oracle also agreed to spend upwards of $72 million over the course of the next three years in R&D to improve MySQL.
But if we can look past all those concessions, then sure, the EC will in all likelihood "unconditionally" approve the $7.4 billion acquisition.
Comments are closed on this article
