Sun Microsystems

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.

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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?)

Continued »

The Oracle conspiracy

For those who attribute Machiavellian motivations to everything Larry Ellison does, here’s a doozy of a theory.

Continued »

Oracle ad claims bright future for Sun hardware

So, you were wondering what Oracle will do with Sun’s venerable hardware franchise? Apparently a lot.  A new ad in The Wall Street Journal and available on Oracle’s site says the vendor will spend more dough on the Solaris OS and SPARC hardware than the independent Sun does now. Continued »

European regulators poop on Oracle’s party

As many expected, the European Commission isn’t smitten with Oracle’s planned buyout of Sun. And the regulars want to take a closer, deeper look at the $7.4 billion deal which already won approval by the much less picky U.S. regulators. Continued »

Sun-Oracle deal moves closer to fruition

It would have been great to go to Avnet Technology Solutions’ annual Sun confab last week, especially given what’s going on with Oracle’s $7.4 acquisition bid for Sun. 

According to  ITbusiness, Avnet’s Sun partners are as worried about Oracle’s plans for Sun hardware as the rest of the Sun partner ecosystem. An Oracle VP did the best he could early in the week to calm those fears but couldn’t say much because the U.S. Justice Department still hadn’t approved the acquisition. That happened on Thursday. Now European regulators, who also must approve the deal,  have until September 3 to either sign off on it or launch a deeper look into it. Oracle partners said the Europeans are particularly concerned about MySQL’s future under Oracle.

In the meantime, IBM and HP will keep pitching Sun customers hard. What’ s not so clear is if those customers are responding. Preliminary data from a SearchDataCenter.com survey show that among data center customers who name Sun as their primary server provider, 85% said an Oracle buyout will not affect their purchasing plans

Rivals eye Sun partners, customers

To say that competitors are circling Sun Microsystems’ customers and partners like vultures is probably overstating the case. But not by much.

Continued »

Oracle parting gifts for McNealy, Schwartz

If and when Scott McNealy and Jonathan Schwartz leave Oracle after it finishes swallowing Sun Microsystems, they won’t go empty handed.  Continued »

Top five questions about Sun-Oracle

Here’s a completely non-scientific list of my top five questions arising from Oracle’s $7.4 billion buy out of Sun Microsystems.

5: How could it have been surprising that Oracle was the white knight here? Larry Ellison is the go-to guy for distressed tech companies who don’t want or cannot be acquired by IBM or Microsoft (hell, better throw Google into the mix for the new millenium. ) This goes way, way back. Back in the paleozoic era, Lotus Development Corp. CEO Jim Manzi tried like all get out to get Oracle to buy Lotus so it wouldn’t end up in IBM’s clutches. That didn’t work out so well.

4: What happens to Oracle’s ardent courtship of Dell and Hewlett-Packard? One can only guess that the HP-Oracle Exadata “Database machine” is a goner now. Not that it was setting any sales records.

3: Which virtualization play will survive the inevitable putsch?

2: How soon will a big hunk of Oracle’s revenue be going by way of hardware bundles with Sun servers? This is very much a page ripped right out of IBM’s DB2 playbook. And Ellison could barely contain himself when talking about that “shelfware.”

1: What was deal with Scott McNealy on the call?  He sounded ummmm, medicated.  Even though this signals the end of the McNealy era in tech (hell, Jonathan Schwartz and the open source pony tail epic already rang the bell on that one.) Still for $7.4 billion, couldn’t Scooter have mustered a little enthusiasm for three minutes? Listen to the playback. It’s shocking