MySQL's ex-CEO Marten Mickos and MySQL co-founder Michael "Monty" Widenius recently released open letters to the EU. Marten supports the Oracle acquisition of MySQL, as part of the Sun deal. Monty urges the EU to block MySQL from being controlled by Oracle.
Considering their points of view, I'm no longer convinced that the EU should just approve the acquisition and let market forces take over. In the long run, I think, and hope, that Oracle will act in its best interests, and those interests will align with MySQL customer interests -- emphasis on "I think" and "hope."
[ MySQL co-founder and creator Michael "Monty" Widenius has said Oracle should sell the database. | Oracle's Larry Ellison last week offered reassurances that Sun technologies will not go away. ]
Let me start with Marten's conclusion as to why the EU should allow the Oracle acquisition:
I believe that Oracle's acquisition of Sun (and MySQL) will increase competition in the database market. And I also believe that if, on the other hand, it becomes difficult or impossible for large companies to acquire open-source assets, then venture investments in open-source companies will slow down, harming the evolution of and innovation in open source, which would result in decreased competition.
I completely agree with Marten here. If open source vendors and their VCs aren't able to sell to larger companies, who may or may not be competitors, then open source investments will be negatively impacted. Closed source vendors have purchased their closed source competition in the past. And yes, the acquiring vendor has, more often than not, migrated the customers to the acquiring vendor's product. Should Oracle attempt this with MySQL, proponents of the deal argue that MySQL customers have several options from other firms providing MySQL support and services. To this end, Marten writes:
...the few thousand customers of the MySQL Enterprise subscription offering.
