Oracle braced for EU objection to Sun deal

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The Financial Times is reporting today that Oracle is expecting formal objection from the EU on monopoly grounds to its $7.6B takeover of Sun Microsystems

Sun logoThe US software company has refused to offer any concessions to European regulators to meet their concerns about the deal, according to one person close to the process. That has left Brussels close to issuing an official statement of objections, the first step on the path to blocking it, this person added.

…Brussels’ concerns centre on Oracle’s assumption of MySQL, an open source software company that Sun acquired in 2008. Opponents of the deal claim MySQL could become a serious competitor to Oracle’s own core business in the long term.

Sun has basically been on pause in the market since the Oracle bid was announced, losing market share every month that the deal doesn’t close, and laying off thousands of people in an attempt to preserve value for its suitor. From AOL’s Daily Finance

Now Oracle is faced with the issue of whether to walk away from Sun completely. The move would almost certainly involve a legal battle with Sun for breaking a definitive purchase agreement, but Ellison is probably facing a legal fight with the EC if he does not give into requests from its anti-competition authority. In the meantime, the value of Sun assets that Oracles is getting for its $7.4 billion investment is continuing to drop, and at some point the investment will become financially foolish.

An Oracle walkout would be a real mess for Sun, which would have to do major surgery and extensive rebuilding to return to viability without a mate.