Brussels : Oracle received approval from European Union regulators to buy Sun Microsystems, overcoming one of the last regulatory hurdles to the planned $7.4 billion (Dh27 billion) transaction.
The European Commission cleared the acquisition after Oracle addressed competition concerns about its acquisition of the open-source database MySQL, which Sun bought in 2008. Oracle said on December 14 that it will boost investment in MySQL and is committed to keeping MySQL's open-source licensing platform.
"I am now satisfied that competition and innovation will be preserved on all the markets concerned," European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement yesterday in Brussels. "Oracle's acquisition of Sun has the potential to revitalise... and create new and innovative products."
Oracle, the second-biggest software maker, aims to squeeze $1.5 billion in operating profit from Sun in the first year after the deal closes in the next few weeks. Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison said in September that the delay was breeding customer uncertainty, causing Sun to lose $100 million a month as companies held off purchases.
Gaye Hudson, a spokeswoman for Oracle in Reading, UK, did not respond to a message left on her mobile phone.
The commission had threatened to block the deal because of concerns that Oracle might be able to eliminate MySQL as a competitor. The regulator, which said that MySQL is the "leading" open-source database, investigated whether Oracle's purchase of MySQL would remove a "competitive constraint."
MySQL had an estimated market share of 0.2 per cent and $40 million in revenue in 2008, according to IDC, a research firm in Framingham, Massachusetts.
The regulator said that after its in-depth review, which began on September 3, it determined that MySQL and Oracle "are not close competitors" in the high-end segment of the market.
