In association with heise online

09 October 2009, 15:22

Former MySQL boss: Oracle's takeover of Sun not anticompetitive

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • submit to slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • submit to reddit

Mårten Mickos
Mårten Mickos
Marten Mickos, longtime CEO of MySQL AB and vice president of the database group at Sun following that company's takeover of MySQL in March 2009, wrote a letter to EU Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes. In the letter, he called for a speedy approval of Oracle's takeover of Sun. The EU Commission had voiced the concern that putting the most important open source database and one of the three most important proprietary database solutions under the same roof could jeopardize the competitiveness of the database market and announced that it would carefully examine the move.

Mickos thinks these concerns are unfounded. For one thing, continuing to develop the MySQL business is in the interests of Oracle; and for another, even if Oracle wanted to, it would not be able to diminish the importance of MySQL in the marketplace. The source of that importance, according to Mickos, is the millions of MySQL users who use the free version of the database without any business relationship with the provider of MySQL and on whom Oracle has no influence. Even if Oracle were to discontinue the MySQL product completely, which the former MySQL CEO considers unlikely, the database's users could continue to use and further develop MySQL.

(djwm)

Print Version | Send by email | Permalink: http://h-online.com/-826390
 


  • July's Community Calendar





The H Open

The H Security

The H Developer

The H Internet Toolkit