Oracle confident European Commission will clear Sun Microsystems deal

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., Nov. 10 - Oracle Corp. responded to the European Commission's statement of objections to its proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

As previously reported, Sun said the statement of objections is "limited to the combination of Sun's open source MySQL database product with Oracle's enterprise database products and its potential negative effects on competition in the market for database products."

Oracle said its acquisition of Sun is "essential for competition in the high-end server market, for revitalizing Sparc and Solaris and for strengthening the Java development platform," according to a form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to Oracle, the transaction "does not threaten to reduce competition in the slightest, including in the database market."

"It is well understood by those knowledgeable about open source software that because MySQL is open source, it cannot be controlled by anyone," Oracle said.

There are eight major players in the database market and no basis in European law for objecting to a merger of two of the firms selling differentiated products, the filing said.

Oracle said the U.S. Department of Justice concluded there is nothing anticompetitive about the deal, including Oracle's acquisition of the MySQL database product.

The company believes it will "ultimately obtain unconditional clearance of the transaction."

Oracle, a Redwood City, Calif.-based enterprise software company, agreed in April 2009 to acquire Sun Microsystems for $9.50 cash per share in a deal valued at approximately $7.4 billion including debt.

Sun is a Santa Clara, Calif., networking computing technologies company.

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