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

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 the acquisitionl, which would cost Oracle a $260 million breakup fee, the Wall Street Journal reports.

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Posted 11/04/09 at 08:08:25 AM by Paul Lilly

Oracle knows it's in for a fight with the European Union over the U.S. company's planned $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, but appears ready to go the rounds, according to a Financial Times report.

The EU is mainly concerned about whay Oracle might end up doing with Sun's MySQL code base, such as killing it off or dropping support in order to push its own non-free database package. And according to FT.com, one person close to the process says the EU is ever-so-close to issuing an official statement of objection, which is step one in blocking the deal.

It's unlikely Oracle will back down, choosing instead to wait and see what the EU decides. Should the Commission object, Oracle could choose to offer concessions or take its fight to court.

The Sun acquisition has already been given the green light by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Posted 10/29/09 at 08:05:50 AM by Paul Lilly

While Oracle struggles to convince the European Union that acquiring the copyrights to the MySQL code base is in the best interest of all involved, Red Hat isn't waiting around to see if the deal gets sanctioned or not. Instead, the open-source outfit went and invested an unspecified amount in database vendor EnterpriseDB, InfoWorld.com reports.

"EnterpriseDB has clearly established itself as a leading enterprise Postgres company, which is why Red Hat has chosen to partner with and invest in the company. EnterpriseDB is also working to create customer value through a subscription support model. Clearly, this is a model we see as beneficial," said Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat.

The move is also a clear indication that Red Hat is worried about what would become of MySQL once under the reigns of Oracle. Red Hat owes much of its popularity as a server platform to users looking to run the free MySQL piggybacked on top of Red Hat. And no matter what Oracle is saying to the EU, there's a lingering fear that should the takeover go through, Oracle may end up weakening MySQL to prevent it from cutting into the sales of Oracle Database.

EnterpriseDB isn't as widely used as MySQL, though many consider it a better fit for larger enterprise workloads, and it has already been able to win over customers from Oracle. But it's also important to keep in mind that this is an investment, and not an acquisition.

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Posted 10/27/09 at 04:30:00 AM by Paul Lilly

One of the challenges facing Oracle in its $7.4 billion takeover bid of Sun Microsystems is in convincing the European Commission that it plans to devote just as much attention to the free, open-source MySQL database as it will on any of its own costlier parallel database products. So far Oracle has a hard time convincing the EC of that, so should Oracle drop MySQL altogether? Former MYSQL business adviser Florian Mueller seems to think so.

Mueller isn't alone, either. Members of the EC feel that owning MySQL through the acquisition of Sun presents a huge conflict of interest for Oracle, who is poised to become the owner of its biggest open-source competitor.

"Oracle is a high-priced cash cow in the parallel database business," Mueller said during a press conference on Monday. "Why then should it be the one entity that controls development, determines revenues, and controls an R&D budget of a competing product that it sells against directly in the database market?"

Naturally, Oracle has a different perspective. According to Oracle CEO and founder Larry Ellison, MySQL isn't a competitor at all, and he points out MySQL has its own market and following. Instead, Ellison says Microsoft SQL Server is Oracle's competition.

But no matter how Ellison feels, it's the EC who has the final word, at least in Europe. Without the EC's stamp of approval, Oracle won't be able to do business in Europe. As it stands, the EC has set a deadline of January 19, 2010 to make a final decision to sanction the deal or not, although it could decide even sooner.

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