New snafu in Oracle-Sun merger
Europe objects despite U. S. approval
Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 11/10/2009 11:22:45 PM
The European Commission has issued a "statement of objections "on Oracle's proposed $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems, due to concerns the merger would hurt competition in the database market. The U.S. Department of Justice, which already has approved the deal, says in a statement that the merger is "unlikely to be anticompetitive."
At the heart of the issue is Sun's MySQL division, which makes the most popular open source database software. Oracle is the market leader in proprietary database software - the kind that is protected by copyright.
Oracle quickly responded that the European concerns are baseless. The EU's objection "reveals a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics," the company says in a statement. "It is well understood by those knowledgeable about open source software that because MySQL is open source, it cannot be controlled by anyone. That is the whole point of open source."
Oracle also says there are "at least eight strong players" in the database market. This point was echoed by the U.S. Justice Department when it again defended its clearance of the merger.
Oracle to Acquire Sun Microsystems
02/09/2010Price Fixing News
09/01/2004Agencies take actions on prices
07/13/2005
Now Playing: 
