Archive for the ‘mysql’ tag
Oracle acquire Sun
Oracle announced today that they are to buy Sun Microsystems at a valuation of $7.4 billion, or $9.50 cash per share. The deal is expected to be completed this summer. This announcement comes just two weeks after talks broke down in a similar deal between IBM and Sun. The most important aspect of this acquisition, for consumers and developers alike, is that Oracle now has control of the Java programming language and development platform. The Java platform runs on over 1 billion devices across the globe, including computers and mobile phones. In recent years, Oracle has invested more and more into Java, using it to power several of their middleware and developer products.
The deal comes as quite a surprise as many believed that IBM were the only interested party. The acquisition of Sun will result in Oracle’s first steps into the business of selling hardware. While this is new territory for Oracle, their lack of presence in this field means they are much less likely to be plagued by anti-trust issues than IBM would, should they have bought Sun. Oracle have vowed to continue to develop Sun’s hardware products – and I imagine that we will see Oracle offering the complete, integrated, out-of-the-box package before long – Oracle servers and Oracle storage solutions powered by Oracle Solaris running Oracle Database and Oracle J2EE applications.
Sun’s products are not limited to Java, Solaris and their hardware offerings – Oracle will also get their hands on OpenOffice/StarOffice, NetBeans, GlassFish, Sun Studio and perhaps more importantly, the popular MySQL database. In a list of a FAQs available on the Oracle website, Oracle have stated that MySQL will simply join the list of database products that Oracle offer. This list currently includes Oracle Database 11g, BerkeleyDB, TimesTen and the InnoDB storage engine. It’s hard to see Oracle changing much of MySQL in the short-term, but it will be interesting to see how Oracle plans to capitalize on its popularity, if indeed it has such plans. According to InformationWeek, MySQL had 11 million installations up to February 2008. It is the most popular database for web applications and was acquired by Sun in February 2008.
In previous acquisitions, Oracle has made job cuts, but it has yet to comment on whether it intends to cut jobs at Sun Microsystems. The companies will continue to operate independently until the deal closes in the summer, subject to approval by shareholders and US regulatory bodies.
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