Oracle

HP to buy 3Com: Make it stop!

Dear lord. Hewlett-Packard says it’s buying 3Com for $2.7 billion. The rationale is that 3Com’s networking hardware would augment the HP ProCurve lineup.  Really? Isn’t there considerable overlap?

 HP must be really, really serious about beating Cisco.

Marius Haas, senior VP of HP ProCurve Networking, and Ron Sege,  prez and COO of 3Com,  will preside over this evening’s inevitable teleconference.

I guess this paves the way or someone, anyone, (Oracle? Anyone?) to snap up Brocade Networks. Juniper Networks anyone? Bueller?

EC to Oracle: Not so fast!

Well, European regulators are definitely not loving the Oracle-Sun deal. And yesterday the European Commission objected to it formally, stating that Oracle ownership of MySQL as well as its own database franchise hurts competition in the database market.

The EC’s antitrust body opened the inquiry into Oracle’s proposed buyout of Sun in March and had till January to issue its findings.

Oracle posted a response to the EC’s objection late Monday:

 
“The transaction does not threaten to reduce competition in the slightest, including in the database market. 

The Commission’s Statement of Objections reveals a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics. It is well understood by those knowledgeable about open source software that because MySQL is open source, it cannot be controlled by anyone.  That is the whole point of open source. 

The database market is intensely competitive with at least eight strong players, including IBM, Microsoft, Sybase and three distinct open source vendors.  Oracle and MySQL are very different database products.  There is no basis in European law for objecting to a merger of two among eight firms selling differentiated products.  Mergers like this occur regularly and have not been prohibited by United States or European regulators in decades”

 

Sun issued a similar statement that added that  any final decision by the commission is subject to appeal appeal to the European Court of First Instance.

Oracle has shown no desire to spin off MySQL, a move that would placate the Europeans.

Check out more IT channel news on SearchITChannel.com.

Oracle addresses Glassfish, other Sun software futures

Oracle execs up to and including Larry Ellison have been vocal about their plan to continue, even boost, support for Java and Solaris. This week the company started talking up plans for some of Sun’s more niche software products, albeit in a very general way.

Check out the updated FAQ on Oracle.com, which says that Glassfish will also be safe and sound. Continued »

Top five IT channel lessons for the quarter

VARs remain extremely cautious on public cloud computing and are obsessed with which vendor giants will remain standing after more expected M&A activity. Those are but two highlights of this quarter’s SearchITChannel.com Advisory Board call. But there more below:  

1: Fear the cloud: Okay, that verbiage may be overkill, but the VARs said they spend a lot of time educating customers about when and if public cloud computing will really meet their needs. Vendor hype aside, board members said public cloud scenarios run counter to HIPAA and other compliance regulations.

Continued »

Sun to cut 3K jobs

Guess Larry Ellison wasn’t kidding  about Sun Microsystems bleeding red ink while European regulators weigh Oracle’s buyout plan.

In an SEC filing, Sun said it will cut 3,000 jobs worldwide over the next year. That’s about 10% of its urrent headcount. More on the Sun layoffs here.

Last Sunday,  Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told thousands of Sun and Oracle customers at Oracle OpenWorld  that Sun was losing $100 million a month while the European Commission considered Oracle’s $7.4 billion buyout of the hardware and Java maker.

Check out more IT channel news on SearchITChannel.com.

The cost of Oracle platinum

Oracle partners are still chewing over  the Oracle Partner Network’s new partner tiering and specialization program. Continued »

OOW highlights: The governator and Ellison’s $10M challenge

Larry Ellison’s milking his latest anti-IBM jihad for all it’s worth. Now he’s challenged anyone to make IBM hardware run Oracle database as fast as it runs on Oracle’s Exadata database machine. If they can do it, they can take $10 million of Larry’s (or Oracle’s) money. He welcomed IBM itself to participate. Continued »

Cameos by Blue Angels, Marc Benioff highlight OOW

A late night cab trip from SFO to Union Square was lightened up a bit with the big Michael Dell billboard on the 101. It went something like this: Dell enjoys the best of both worlds: See Salesforce.com @ Oracle OpenWorld. Continued »

Sun partners burnt at Oracle OpenWorld

Oracle OpenWorld 2009 did  not open well for Sun partners who are already reaching for anti-anxiety meds as the Sun Microsystems acquisition finalizes. Continued »

Top five questions for Oracle OpenWorld 2009

This’ll be easy. As Oracle keeps trying to close its Sun Microsystems acquisition, the top Oracle OpenWorld queries are locked up this year. But partners and solution providers still have other nagging issues they want addressed at the show. So, here goes:

1: What will Oracle do with Sun hardware (and Sun’s hardware channel?) Granted, with those pesky EU regulators breathing down it’s neck–mostly on MySQL questions–Larry Ellison needs to reassure Sun partners and customers that Oracle wants their business but without saying anything detailed that could further inflame the law-and-order crowd.

2: Specifically, how will Oracle deal with Exadata? The first, HP-based big-bang “database machine”  was a direct sale from Oracle although any Oracle partner worth his or her salt knows that can be finessed if they file a non-standard deal and can best the Oracle rep. With a new Sun-based box, will Sun hardware partners get to play? If so, how much will they love competing with Oracle partners (and Oracle direct sales?)

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