Sell MySQL, Co-Founder to Oracle
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 22 October 2009, 15:02 IST   |    1 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
Sell MySQL, Co-Founder to Oracle
Bangalore: MySQL Co-Founder Michael "Monty" Widenius has expressed his concern over the proposed Oracle-Sun merger and has suggested Oracle to sell MySQL to settle the merger. In a statement posted on his blog on Monday, Widenius said the European Commission is "absolutely right to be concerned" about the $7.4 billion takeover of Sun by Oracle, and he urged Oracle to sell MySQL to clear up any antitrust issues, according to CNET News. In his blog, Widenius asked Oracle "to be constructive and commit to sell MySQL to a suitable third party, enabling an instant solution instead of letting Sun suffer much longer." The famed MySQL developer, who departed Sun earlier this year, said that he wishes Sun "all the best, but MySQL needs a different home than Oracle, a home where there will be no conflicts of interest concerning how, or if, MySQL should be developed further." "Letting Oracle have MySQL, is worse than putting the fox in charge of the henhouse, because the hens are no threat to the fox, while MySQL makes Oracle lose customers and forces it to grant discounts to customers threatening to defect. Every day that passes without Oracle excluding MySQL from the deal is further evident that Oracle just wants to get rid of its open-source challenger, and that the EU's investigation is needed to safeguard innovation and customer choice. This is highly critical because the entire knowledge-based economy is built on databases," said Florian Mueller, an EU policy expert who is a former MySQL shareholder and adviser. The deal had received approval from U.S. Department of Justice in August but the European Commission opened a probe in early September, citing fear that Oracle's ownership of MySQL could pose a competitive threat. Richard Stallman, Founder of the Free-Software Movement, wrote an open letter to the EU on Monday opposing an Oracle-owned MySQL as a threat that would hinder its further development in the open-source community. Meanwhile, Sun continues to suffer. Few days back the company announced that it would lay off another 3,000 employees, about 10 percent of its total workforce, over the next year. This latest round is in addition to 6,000 jobs cuts announced almost a year ago as part of the company's restructuring plan.