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Time to break out the big guns. With Sun Microsystems losing an estimated $100 million per month (by Larry Ellison’s estimates, anyway) while the European Commission ponders the competitive implications of Oracle’s $7.4 billion bid for technology-rich but financially-struggling Sun, fifty-nine U.S. Senators are pressing the EC to approve the deal.
Meanwhile, the 20,000-member Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) has sent a letter to European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes, telling her and the anti-trust body that competition would increase if Oracle were permitted to purchase Sun and its commercially-supported version of the MySQL open source database. More on this later.
Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are among the 59 U.S. senators who have requested that the EC complete its investigation of the Oracle-Sun deal as quickly as possible. Kerry reasons that a continued delay by the EC on a decision “threatens thousands of American jobs, so we felt compelled to ask for a speedy resolution.” He added that “The EC is within its sovereign rights to set the rules for operation in its market, but with our Department of Justice having made a compelling case that the merger does not pose a threat to competition, it is fair to ask the EC for the basis on which a delay on decision making is warranted and to make a decision one way or the other.”
Hatch’s comments are more considerably more pointed. “I have become increasingly concerned about the growing body of evidence that foreign regulatory agencies are unfairly using their review processes to impede the business of American corporations,” said Hatch. “This transaction has been thoroughly reviewed by the United States Department of Justice, which has decided to take no action. Therefore, I hope the EC will quickly conclude their investigation into this transaction.”
Kerry raises a salient point. Consider that it’s not just Sun that’s bleeding business to IBM and HP but also ancillary Sun partners such as OEMs, VARs, systems integrators and consultants whose livelihoods are tied to Sun’s viability.
The EC is certainly within its rights to review the deal. But does it really need to take this long to make a decision while thousands of jobs hang in the balance? Presumably some of potentially affected workers are European-based.
Even before I read Hatch’s remarks, I questioned whether the senatorial letter could result in some political backlash. No doubt some members of the EC bristled at suggestions of how they should act by Americans. But for Oracle, Sun and the thousands of constituents that the senators represent, it’s worth the risk to try to speed up the process – especially with U.S. unemployment rates already above 10% (not including unemployed or under-employed people who aren’t collecting benefits).
The IOUG letter should carry some good karma with the EC. Just as other software groups such as the Open Rights Group and Knowledge Ecology International have asked Kroes to block the deal due to competitive concerns, the IOUG is lobbying the EC to “clear the transaction promptly and end the uncertainty.”
In its Nov. 11 letter to Kroes, IOUG President Ian Abramson points out how Oracle has previously acquired companies such as TimesTen, Berkeley DB and Hyperion Essbase “and has continued to support and enhance them.” Abramson goes on to say that competition will increase if the deal is approved, pointing to how Oracle supports open standards and open source computing. Still, one has to wonder why IOUG waited until now to reach out to Kroes.
The EC has until Jan. 27 to rule on the matter. We’ll see whether the letters requesting a prompt resolution will speed things up. Don't hold your breath.
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