(Database - Sun) + Oracle = Acquisition

It seems that the Europeans are putting their two cents into the pending acquisition of Sun by Oracle.

Can't say I'm surprised as many businesses in Europe and around the world use MySQL. I've often thought that this more than anything else would get in the way of the acquisition. Of all the areas of overlap, this seems to be the one that matters the most.

Oracle already owns one of the biggest databases around, now it stands to acquire another one with world wide appeal. As the article quoted above mentions:

Regulators must “examine very carefully the effects on competition in Europe when the world’s leading proprietary database company proposes to take over the world’s leading open-source database company,”

It's also a key part of the SAP system (in the form of MaxDB), which I am sure is part of the European investigation whether it is specifically mentioned or not, as the article also states:

“the enquiry will focus on the extent to which open-source software developers would be able to continue to develop software based on the open-source MySQL database,” which Sun bought last year and which is widely used.

I'm still thinking that the simplest solution to to sell MySQL to SAP. It would create a level playing field between Microsoft, Oracle/Sun and SAP.

All would have ERP and database tools. Microsoft and Oracle/Sun would still have operating systems, but I don't think this is a big issue for SAP since they not only run just fine on both. Additionally I think we all realize that SAP drives purchases of operating systems and tools from the other companies.

Can't wait to see what happens...