The latest news is that Oracle’s Sun acquisition will be approved by the end of January, the European Union finally giving its blessing having delayed the merger for many months FOR NO GOOD REASON.

European Chauvinism

It is the truth that Antitrust action in the IT market was conspicuous by its absence during the Bush years and that, consequently it made sense for Europe to step into the IT market and exert its interest. Clearly, the US DOJ had abdicated its responsibility, turned a blind eye and buried its head in the sand.

In the cases of Microsoft and Intel, EU intervention seemed reasonably fair. But when it came to Oracle’s Sun acquisition, the intervention was unwarranted. The EU seemed to be concerned that the acquisition might lead to the sidelining of MySQL. That was insane. Here’s why:

• If the EU cared so much about MySQL, why didn’t it prevent the acquisition of the company by Sun? Truth is it didn’t care.
• Ulf Widenius, one of the founders of MySQL, who made a tidy fortune when Sun acquired it, has been complaining “on behalf of MySQL users.”
• The MySQL user who’s interests he represents most strongly is, well, himself.
• MySQL was always Open Source and Widenius is busy creating a MySQL clone product from that Open Source base called MariaDB.
• It should not be the role of a regulatory body to intervene in mergers on behalf of such a biased minority individual with a personal axe to grind.
• There is no evidence whatsoever that Oracle will squash MySQL. It wouldn’t make business sense precisely because it is Open Source. But even if it did, so what? Some products get killed in acquisitions. Some really good products get killed in acquisitions.
• MySQL is small beer in this merger.

I have no idea what Oracle’s plans are for reviving the fortunes of Sun. Sun has been a great IT company and I personally hope that this merger will be a productive one. But every month that has gone by with the EU blocking it, has made Oracle’s task more difficult. That would be completely acceptable if there were an antitrust battle to be waged here on behalf of IT users, but there just isn’t one.