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Oracle-Sun critic doubts Oracle's 'promises' to support MySQL
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An opponent of the deal for Oracle to acquire Sun Microsystems came to Silicon Valley Monday to make his case that the European Commission should block the deal unless Oracle agrees to sell off Sun’s MySQL division.
Florian Mueller, a consultant to the creator of the open source MySQL database management software company who’s also a deal opponent, visited the San Francisco Bay Area, headquarters of both Oracle and Sun, on the first of a brief two-day U.S. visit to make his case.
In a rambling 90-minute news conference to a dozen local reporters and industry analysts in an airport hotel conference room, Mueller went into so much detail about opposition to the Oracle takeover of Sun that he left little time for questions and had to rush out afterwards to catch a flight.
But Mueller, a 20-year-plus software industry veteran, argued that Oracle, which has a substantial commercial database management software business, should be required by the European Commission to sell MySQL to a third party before it’s allowed to complete its US$7.4 billion acquisition of Sun. MySQL, as an established, popular open source database software provider, has become a formidable competitor to Oracle’s for-profit software and shouldn’t be allowed to acquire one of its emerging competitors, Mueller argued.
“MySQL is the only open source database company with both a strong community following and a strong commercial following,” he said.
Mueller voiced skepticism about Oracle assurances that it would continue to support it and would invest research and development dollars in building MySQL as an alternative database management product.
“I’m not saying they’re lying. I’m saying the promises don’t mean effective competition. You can make and keep the R&D promises, but the question is will [Oracle] compete with themselves?” Mueller said.
MySQL, founded in Sweden in 1995, was acquired by Sun in 2008 for $1 billion. Even though Sun is a for profit business that acquired the open source MySQL, the situation is not the same as the idea of the for profit Oracle getting its hands on MySQL, Mueller said, “Because Sun doesn’t have the Oracle kind of core business.”
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, in a public presentation in San Jose Sept. 21, said he would not spin off MySQL or other Sun businesses in order to win European Commission approval for the acquisition. Yet, in a Wall Street Journal ad published Sept. 10, Oracle itemized Sun businesses that would benefit from being part of Oracle, including its Sparc processor line, Solaris operating system and Sun hardware. Conspicuous by its absence, to some observers, was MySQL.
Mueller noted that the European Commission launched its own inquiry of the Oracle-Sun deal after the U.S. Justice Department endorsed the deal in August. In announcing the EC probe Sept. 3, one commissioner stated the focus of their concern was specifically MySQL.
“Oracle is the market leader in proprietary databases, while Sun's MySQL database product is the leading open source database,” stated Commissioner Neelie Kroes. “The Commission has an obligation to ensure that customers would not face reduced choice or higher prices as a result of this takeover.
The European Commission is the governing body of the European Union, a gathering of 27 countries, mostly in Europe, created in 1993 to establish a set of laws governing their economies. The euro, for example, is the standard currency of the EU-member states. The EC can prohibit – or put conditions on -- a merger of two U.S. companies even if U.S. authorities have approved it.
Mueller told his audience in California Monday that the European Commission is expected to make its decision on the deal by Jan. 19, 2010, though it should be expected to issue a “statement of concerns” soon raising issues it has about the deal as it stands now.
Mueller represents Michael 'Monty' Widenius, the MySQL software creator who left MySQL a few months after it was acquired by Sun. He now owns Monty Program AB, a Swedish company that markets a variation of the MySQL database called Maria DB. Other open source groups also want MySQL divested.
Oracle has declined requests for comment on the deal opposition, But in his San Jose speech on the deal in September, Ellison said continued delays are hurting Sun, which he said is losing $100 million a month.
The flight Mueller was so in a hurry to catch after his San Francisco news conference was to New York City where he has scheduled another news conference with journalists and industry analysts for Tuesday Oct. 27.
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