Oracle's Sun acquisition gets approval from Europe; Strategy session set for Jan. 27
The European Commission has approved Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Now the real work begins. Oracle and Sun will hold a Webcast Jan. 27 to outline their strategy going forward.
In a statement Thursday, Europe's competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said:
I am now satisfied that competition and innovation will be preserved on all the markets concerned. Oracle's acquisition of Sun has the potential to revitalise important assets and create new and innovative products.
Oracle's plans for MySQL were a big concern for European regulators. Kroes also said that European regulators were concerned about Oracle's control of Java. Late last year, Oracle and the EU smoothed out their differences and executives said they were confident that the Sun deal would be approved.
Also: Oracle reassures MySQL customers as wrestles with EU over the Sun purchase
Now the fun begins. Oracle first has to stop the bleeding at Sun. With the merger in limbo, IBM and HP grabbed server share and delivered body blows to Sun. Now Oracle has to stabilize Sun and then deliver more tightly integrated hardware/software packages along the lines of the Exadata machine.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison laid out the plan for Sun in December and rest assured there's a lot more to come. First up, Oracle executives are likely to huddle with Sun customers. On Jan. 27, Oracle will hold a Webcast to talk about its plans for Sun, the product lineup and integrated software and hardware packages.