Get the last word in: apologise
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The EU is worried about the Oracle Sun deal
IT LOOKS LIKE ORACLE is not going to get an easy ride from european regulators over its purchase of Sun, which the EU Competition Commission thinks could be bad for open sauce.
According to a statement from the commission, it has opened an in-depth investigation into the planned acquisition under the EU Merger Regulation.
Apparently an initial market investigation indicated that the proposed acquisition raised serious doubts as to its compatibility with the Single Market.
Basically the EU is worried that Oracle might have a little bit too much control over the database market.
The commission says that it is not prejudging the matter and will not make a ruling until it has the final result of its investigation. It has 90 working days or until January 19 to present a report to the world.
EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the commission has to examine very carefully the effects on competition in Europe when the world's leading proprietary database company proposes to take over the world's leading open source database company.
It is worried that customers would face reduced choices or higher prices as a result of this takeover.
Since databases are a key element of both public and business IT systems, the Oracle move could really stuff up the European economy, particularly when economic conditions are a bit fragile.
If a merged Oracle-Sun company decided to walk away from open source then the EU could be left without cost-effective IT solutions and systems based on open source software.
"The Commission has to ensure that such alternatives would continue to be available," Kroes said.
The EU feels that the database market is highly concentrated with the three main competitors in proprietary databases - Oracle, IBM and Microsoft - together having 85 per cent of the market.
Oracle is the market leader in proprietary databases, while Sun's MySQL database product is the leading open source database.
The Commission's preliminary market investigation has shown that the Oracle databases and Sun's MySQL compete directly in many sectors of the database market and that MySQL is widely expected to represent a greater competitive constraint as it becomes increasingly functional, Kroes said.
The Commission's investigation has also shown that the open source nature of Sun's MySQL might not fully eliminate the potential for anti-competitive effects.
In its in-depth investigation, the Commission will need to look at Oracle's incentive to further develop MySQL as an open source database, she said. µ
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They wanted it until Sun sued them.
Adobe has intimated that the big M should take over PDF.
Or into the Big Blue, out of the great wide open, a rubble without a clue.
While the EU does have the right and the responsibility to protect the economic interests of its people, this is getting a little out of hand. Yes, the EU is the second largest economy in the world. Yes, companies do a lot of business there. But, honestly, this is getting out of control. As others have noted, Sun and Oracle are American companies. The EU's right to block the merger is a business matter, not a legal matter. They crossed the line in fining Intel for making a superior product and selling it any way they could (which, I admit, was shady...but it's not like those billion$ are going to the aggrieved party, AMD...they're going to line the pockets of bureaucrats!). Now, they are going to cross an even bigger if they trying to block this deal.
They've screwed over Microsoft, the leading software company in the world. They've crewed Intel, the largest microprocessor maker. Now, they're looking to Sun/Oracle. Are they trying to relegate their people to the technological backwater?! Cause it doesn't take a genius to note that this is a foreign power actively working to obstruct the operation of several very important American corporations.
I'm pretty sure the US gov't has a strong case to go before the WTO...then again, that organization has teeth as sharp as a newborn. The only thing that might stop the EU is if they try to go after IBM. Something tells me Big Blue would, as they say in the vernacular, choke a bitch! :)
the EU doesn't like this deal, or does not get the payola they are expecting? It's not like they can block the merger of two NON_EUROPEAN companies. At what point did the EU regulators become the trade policemen of the world. Try to extort, ummmm fine, ummmm "correct" injustices?
I guess they would whine to the European socialist in the White House?
So now it's not a matter of anti-competitive behavior, it's more because the EU is just too damn cheap to buy into a commecial database solution, or--God forbid--develop their own. Hell, if the US GPS system weren't owned by the US DOD, they'd probably be suing to use that too.
Besides MySQL Sun also has Java - imagine if Oracle squashed or bastardised that - it'd have a much bigger impact than MySQL. This would also play into the hands of the EU's arch enemy - Microsoft, who would then laugh and leap with joy, telling web page builders they should have been using ActiveX all along.
10 points to the EU people who are willing to simply rubber stamp this deal.
Mind you, reversing the deal could be tricky, I know lots of good Sun people who've lost their jobs in the last few months and the market perception is that Sun is very much a spent force. For them to suddenly jump up and shout "Hey everybody, We're ok! Business as usual!" just wouldn't wash with many disillusioned (potential)clients.
If the EU was really worried about the prices consumers paid, it would cut taxes so ALL consumers would pay less for ALL goods and services
Open Source can take care of itself. Even if Oracle were to shut MySQL down, any number of groups would take the already-released code and run with it. Look at Drizzle and MariaDB, just for instance.
Oh, you mean they’re worried that MySQL might take precedence, and Oracle’s database products would suffer as a result? Hmm, now THAT is something to be concerned about...
Why would this have anything to do with the EU? Aren't both companies US based. If the EU started to shake the money box at Oracle (They help us out of the resesson), then all Sun would have to do is shut down all there outlets in the EU fire everyone then the EU would have nothing to complain about. Then Oracle could go around and hire the people they wanted. Then the EU would be left with more unemployment worries.
All Oracle wants is the software anyway.
LOL, hector, that one hit the spot...
Make Oracle divest MySQL. Turn it back over to the Open Source Community.
Then let's see how much Oracle wants Sun.
Ah, go ahead.
Fine 'em a billion euros or 2. You know you want to. Think of it as a preemptive strike.
Give it to them free and then charge for it when they're addicted. Works all the time...
The Commission is probably worried about its own IT infrastructure, which is based on a lot of Oracle databases and SPARC/Solaris servers. A discontinuation of SUN would mean a lot of porting efforts not necessary otherwise.
Well, last time I saw, there were other options of open source DBs (PostGreSQL) and other options of free DBs, tough not open source (SQL Server Express, DB2 Express).
Sounds like someone forgot how open source projects work. If it is canceled then someone else can pick it up.