EU formally objects to Oracle's Sun plans

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Yesterday the EU formally objected to Oracle’s plans to buy Sun on competitive grounds related to MySQL

Sun logoThe commission said in a preliminary assessment that combining Sun’s MySQL database product and Oracle’s products could hurt competition in the database market, Sun said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The objection is a first step by EU regulators toward scuttling the deal, effectively putting everyone on notice that they believe there is a problem. They’ll spend the next couple of months assessing whether that problem is serious enough to warrant blocking the deal.

Oracle said it “plans to vigorously oppose the Commission’s Statement of Objections”. The Commission faces a January 19 deadline on whether to approve the deal.

As I said earlier, I believe that a significant delay or outright cancellation of the deal would threaten the viability of Sun as a going concern.