The European Commission made the rumors official on Monday by issuing its official objections to Sun Microsystems' acquisition by Oracle -- setting the stage for a transatlantic fight between Oracle and European regulators.

The EC's Statement of Objections sets out the Commission's preliminary assessment concerning Sun's MySQL database product -- the only reason cited in the statement for objecting to the deal.

It's far from the last play in the game, however. The European Commission must still make a final decision on the acquisition, and today's statement -- more akin to a preliminary assessment -- allows Oracle and Sun to present arguments in response. The European Commission's final decision could come as late as January.

As expected, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), a company not known to give up a fight, fired back in a statement of its own on Monday.

"The transaction does not threaten to reduce competition in the slightest, including in the database market," the company said. "The Commission's Statement of Objections reveals a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics."

"It is well understood by those knowledgeable about open source software that because MySQL is open source, it cannot be controlled by anyone. That is the whole point of open source," it added.

In its response, Oracle also vowed to "vigorously oppose" the Commission's preliminary findings.

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"The evidence against the Commission's position is overwhelming," it said. "Given the lack of any credible theory or evidence of competitive harm, we are confident we will ultimately obtain unconditional clearance of the transaction."

Oracle does have some support in its corner: The U.S. Department of Justice. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Molly Boast of the Department's Antitrust Division issued a statement of support for Oracle.

"After conducting a careful investigation of the proposed transaction between Oracle and Sun, the Department's Antitrust Division concluded that the merger is unlikely to be anticompetitive," Boast said in the statement. "At this point in its process, it appears that the EC holds a different view. We remain hopeful that the parties and the EC will reach a speedy resolution that benefits consumers in the Commission's jurisdiction."

It's unclear how much the EC's concerns with the merger may impact its timetable for clearance, or whether it may signal European regulators' desire for more aggressive actions needed before the deal can proceed -- for instance, a divestiture of MySQL or other remedies.

At the very least, the move by the EC means that it wants more answers than it has gotten thus far.

The EC launched its probe of the deal in September, citing "serious concerns" about the purchase's potential impact on the open source database market. The entire investigation has centered around MySQL and no other parts of Sun, including its widely used and popular Java programming language.

Regulators have since expressed frustration that Oracle executives had not been cooperative in answering their questions.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has said Sun is losing around $100 million a month due to the delay. In its most recent quarterly filing, Sun posted a $120 million loss as it cut costs wherever possible to mitigate declining sales.