The California merger of two of the world’s biggest database and software companies ran into a hurdle on Thursday when the European Commission announced an in-depth investigation of Oracle’s proposed takeover of Sun Microsystems.
Only two weeks after the US authorities gave a green light to the deal, Neelie Kroes, the EU’s competition commissioner, said initial inquiries had raised worries about the impact on the databases market.
The US$7.4 billion deal was blessed last month by the US justice department, but Brussels announced a 90-day investigation to be completed by January, halting the merger at least temporarily. The inquiry is expected to concentrate on the effect of Oracle obtaining control of the open-source MySQL, the industry leader bought by Sun last year.
“The transaction would bring together two major competitors in the market for databases,” the commission said. “The database market is highly concentrated, with the three main competitors of proprietary databases — Oracle, IBM and Microsoft — controlling approximately 85 percent of the market in terms of revenue. Oracle is the market leader in proprietary databases, while Sun’s MySQL database product is the leading open-source database.”
Yesterday’s move reinforced Kroes’ reputation as the toughest scrutineer of some of the world’s leading companies. Brussels has had a long-running dispute with Microsoft over its dominance of the market for Internet browsers.
“The commission has an obligation to ensure customers would not face reduced choice or higher prices as a result of this takeover,” Kroes said.
Brussels will seek to ensure that open-source software designers would still be able to develop software based on the MySQL database.
Other leading software companies, such as Microsoft and Germany’s SAP, had criticized the proposed Oracle takeover, arguing that the deal could lead to price increases for databases.
The US justice department gave its approval to the merger last month after several months of investigation. Jonathan Todd, Kroes’ spokesman, said that while Brussels was concerned with competition in the database market, the Americans had examined Sun’s Java programming language and the implications of the takeover for Java’s licensing. He said this was not an issue for the EU.
DEFENSE: The first set of three NASAMS that were previously purchased is expected to be delivered by the end of this year and deployed near the capital, sources said Taiwan plans to procure 28 more sets of M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as nine additional sets of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), military sources said yesterday. Taiwan had previously purchased 29 HIMARS launchers from the US and received the first 11 last year. Once the planned purchases are completed and delivered, Taiwan would have 57 sets of HIMARS. The army has also increased the number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) purchased from 64 to 84, the sources added. Each HIMARS launch pod can carry six Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, capable of
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
TRAJECTORY: The severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, and would influence the nation to varying degrees, a forecaster said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it would likely issue a sea warning for Tropical Storm Podul tomorrow morning and a land warning that evening at the earliest. CWA forecaster Lin Ting-yi (林定宜) said the severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving west at 21kph and packing sustained winds of 108kph and gusts of up to 136.8kph, the CWA said. Lin said that the tropical storm was about 1,710km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, with two possible trajectories over the next one
CHINA’s BULLYING: The former British prime minister said that he believes ‘Taiwan can and will’ protect its freedom and democracy, as its people are lovers of liberty Former British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday said Western nations should have the courage to stand with and deepen their economic partnerships with Taiwan in the face of China’s intensified pressure. He made the remarks at the ninth Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prospect Foundation in Taipei. Johnson, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had seen Taiwan’s coastline on a screen on his indoor bicycle, but wanted to learn more about the nation, including its artificial intelligence (AI) development, the key technology of the 21st century. Calling himself an
RSS