[ Thanks to Jose_X
for this link. ]
“The companies said Monday that the European
Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, issued a statement
of objections regarding the deal, which they said focuses on
whether Oracle’s takeover of Sun’s MySQL database software would
reduce competition in the database market.“The move doesn’t necessarily mean the EU will reject the deal,
but it is expected to delay the transaction since regulators have
concluded there is a competitive problem.“The U.S. Justice Department previously approved Oracle’s
purchase of Sun, and it reiterated Monday that it had concluded
that Oracle’s ownership of MySQL wouldn’t harm competition.“Oracle, which has an opportunity to respond to the European
Commission’s objections, said the EU’s move “reveals a profound
misunderstanding of both database competition” and the dynamics of
so-called open-source software, whose programming instructions can
be viewed and modified by users. MySQL is a prominent example of
such software.”