Quoted – EC delays Oracle acquisition of Sun – Internet News

While a tiny portion of Sun’s business comes under European Commission scrutiny, what becomes of Sun while it waits?

Now, the problem all stems from MySQL, an open source database worth about $300 million to Sun. For a giant like Oracle, that’s a small amount, but that’s what the EC is focused on in its investigation.

Scott Testa, professor of Business Administration at Cabrini College in Philadelphia, said that this kind of scrutiny really is not warranted.

“The acquisition of MySQL makes sense on the Oracle side because they’ve been losing some business to the open source market. So I can see where the EU says ‘hey, you’re acquiring a competitor that’s making in-roads to your space, we want to look more,’ but at the end of the day, it’s such a little part of the market it doesn’t make sense,” he told InternetNews.com.

Testa believes Oracle will keep MySQL. “Even though it’s a small piece of business, I think Oracle wants that MySQL business. They don’t want to have to sell it to someone. So it’s a weird thing. I guess I feel bad for Sun but that’s technological Darwinism. They stuck to Sparc and Solaris to the end of time. I feel bad but it is what it is,” he said.

Even though Sun hardware is taking the hits, Testa thinks the biggest value is, ironically enough, in Sun’s software assets. “Honestly, the most valuable assets at Sun are Java and MySQL, plus Solaris and some consulting stuff. But the hardware business? I don’t see a lot of value in that. The software stuff is where the value is,” he noted.

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/10791_3837756_1

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