Oracle Denies Report Of MySQL Compromise

Larry Ellison has dismissed a report suggesting he would compromise over MySQL in order to allay European competition concerns

“Even if they put in the most far-reaching remedy tomorrow, the [EC] commission wouldn’t be in a position to take a decision before the end of the year, let alone by the 10th. It just isn’t possible,” McLeod told eWEEK. “It’s wrong and … indicates this person’s ‘source’ is far from this procedure – and in fact any procedure involving the EC.”

The EC, which serves as the law enforcement body of the 27-nation European Union, is due to make a decision on 27 January, 2010, about whether to sanction Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, so Oracle can continue to do business in Europe.

Sun owns the code base and steers the international community of the MySQL database, Oracle’s largest open-source competitor. Sun bought MySQL in January 2008 for about $1 billion (£601 million).

MySQL is a European-born database that is an important ingredient in running enterprise websites.