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Sun is losing $100 million a month

Ellison blames EU delays
Tue Sep 22 2009, 12:06

ORACLE CEO Larry Ellison claims that Sun Microsystems is losing $100 million per month as European regulators ponder if the deal creates a monopoly.

Ellison wrote a cheque for $7 billion to buy Sun, but the EU Competiton Commission said it wanted to investigate the deal in more detail because it might stuff up open sauce competition in the database market.

Ellison said it is unnecessary for Oracle to divest Sun's MySQL database software business to satisfy European regulators, who have expressed concerns about his company's ownership of the unit.

Oracle would not spin off the open sauce MySQL, Ellison said, and he expects the deal will eventually be cleared by European regulators as it was in the United States, without any conditions.

But he also said that the longer this takes the more money Sun will lose. µ

 

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Comments
Larry knows...

his father's nephew's dad is Bob.

Say. Is it he slips them a tenner for show? The big O has more money than ponzi and some sooner, everything under the Sun.

posted by : Barney Madoff, 23 September 2009 Complain about this comment
For more information

I think this link is worth a read:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/14683/why_the_eu_should_block_oracle_sun

posted by : Lars, 23 September 2009 Complain about this comment
Ellison is apparently

Ellison is apparently prepared to losing $100 million a month, but the concern regarding MySQL is real among a very large number of large MySQL users in the USA and elsewhere. So again I think the EU Competition Commission is up to date, and serious, and Ellison will have to specify his intents or keep on losing $100 million a month.

posted by : Lars, 23 September 2009 Complain about this comment
Not sure what the fuss is about

Sounds like Ellison's looking for excuses again. He would have known that the EU would want to take a close look at this, and so they should.

He does like his publicity though doesn't he? The problem is he's beginning to believe it himself.

PS. As the previous commentator says, MySQL is a European developed database, as much as anything can be tied to a geographical area these days.

posted by : Matt, 22 September 2009 Complain about this comment
They did

The european community has already developed an open source alternative: it's called mysql. To a large extent it was developed in within the eu.

posted by : mullepol, 22 September 2009 Complain about this comment
EU Competiton Commission

Could it be that the longer the EU Competiton Commission deliberate over a decision, the more time it has to keep them in a cushy job until the next big case comes along, ad infinitum.....

posted by : Joe, 22 September 2009 Complain about this comment
@BB

Amen, brotha (or sista, as the case may be)!

I have complete confidence the European community can come up with a very competitive database solution (and I mean that with all sincerity). So, I really don't understand what the problem is with the acquisition.

posted by : Ryan, 22 September 2009 Complain about this comment
Make your own!

If the EU is so damn concerned about "open source" competition they should take the MySQL source code, which is freely available, and fork their own database solution.

posted by : BB, 22 September 2009 Complain about this comment
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