What should have been a slam-dunk deal, Oracle’s $7.4 billion purchase of Sun, has turned into a tragi-comedy of epic proportions. If there weren’t so many people being negatively affected, this would be downright funny.
Today, that noted economist Ralph Nader come out against the deal and urged the EC to reject it. Nader’s Knowledge Ecology International group is joined by the U.K.-based Open Rights Group and the eminent capitalist Richard Stallman in opposing the deal.
TheStreet.com reports Nader sent a letter to European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, warning that Oracle is bad, bad, bad.
“Oracle seeks to acquire MySQL to prevent further erosion of its share of the market for database software licenses and services, and to protect the high prices now charged for its proprietary database software licenses and services,” he wrote. “If Oracle is allowed to acquire MySQL, it will predictably limit the development and functionality of the MySQL platform.”
Nader should stick to Pintos because he does not know what he’s talking about. If any company would want to buy MySQL to kill it, it’s Microsoft. Secondly, Oracle couldn’t stop MySQL if it wanted to, since it’s open source. Both Larry Ellison and MySQL founder Marten Mikos have pointed out that Oracle couldn’t kill MySQL if it wanted to, and Ellison has made it clear he has no intention of doing that.
