(RTTNews) - Correction: A previous version of the article incorrectly identified Monty Widenius as CEO of MySQL. Mr. Widenius is the founder and co-creator of MySQL.




Tensions are brewing between the Obama administration and European regulators over a potentially game-changing merger between Oracle Corp. (ORCL: News ) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA: News ).

Anti-trust officials in Europe are concerned that the $7.4 billion deal will squelch competition in the open source database market.

At issue is the fate of MySQL, an open source database currently owned by Sun that is in competition with Oracle.

European regulators want Oracle to sell the freely available MySQL to a third party, fearing Oracle would kill it through neglect, eliminating a potential rival that has pushed down prices of databases.

MySQL was the only Sun business unit mentioned in the European Commission's early September announcement of its in-depth investigation into the proposed merger.
There has been fierce competition between Oracle's flagship product and MySQL on Linux, particularly at the high end of the market, where Oracle generates most of its revenue and profits.

The U.S. Department of Justice says that there are enough open source competitors to prevent the merger from harming the consumer. Meanwhile, the European Union may be reaching a very different conclusion.

"The assessment of the Justice Department is based on the number of competitors and does not really reflect the very concentrated state of the [open source] market," Florian Mueller, a former strategy advisor for MySQL and an EU affairs expert told RTTNews.

"What the market needs is for MySQL to continue on its trajectory as opposed to getting under the control of exactly the one entity that stands the most to lose from MySQL continuing to get better and more competitive," he added.

Oracle may be a winner no matter how the merger turns out. Analysts have pointed out if Oracle walks out on the deal, Sun may not be able to adequately support MySQL, freeing up Oracle to focus on competition from Microsoft (MSFT).

Predictions of the demise of MySQL should the deal fall apart or go through as proposed are off the mark, insists Mueller.

"If Oracle walks out on the deal because of failure to achieve regulatory approval, Sun would have some kind of clarity and MySQL would still be in the hands of a company that has no reason not to generate revenues and make MySQL better," he said. "MySQL can do well regardless of its corporate parenting."

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