MySQL CEO Marten Mickos is leaving Sun

According to reports allegedly confirmed by both the 451 Group and blogger
Matt Asay, Marten Mickos the former CEO of MySQL is set to leave Sun.
(I have not yet been able to independantly confirm this myself but i’m working on it).
The revelation comes barely a day after MySQL founder Monty Widenius announced he was leaving Sun too.

Sun’s official bio page for Mickos notes that:

Mickos is serving as an open source strategist until the end of Sun’s fiscal third quarter 2009.

Suffice it to say this does not bode well for Sun in my opinion. At least from a public perception point of view.

Mickos was not only helping to lead MySQL inside of Sun but also its other database efforts including PostgreSQL. He’s a known quantity and a well regarded executive. In the few times I spoke with him or saw him speak I was usually impressed.

Certainly there is a culture difference between an open source startup and an established public company that has quarterly targets to hit. No doubt that Sun has a more stratified organizational structure than what MySQL likely had before being acquired.

Whether or not the double blows of losing Mickos and Widenuis will affect Sun’s growth plans for MySQL remains to be seen. If in fact Mickos and Widenuis were somehow barriers to Sun’s growth than it’s a good thing, but on the other hand if in fact Mickos and Widenuis were the guiding visionaries behind MySQL than these are loses which will be costly to Sun.