European Commission objects to Oracle's takeover of Sun
Posted: 10 November 2009 0807 hrs

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WASHINGTON: The European Commission has objected on competitive grounds to US business software giant Oracle's proposed takeover of Sun Microsystems, Sun said on Monday.

Sun, in a filing with US regulators, said the EC has issued a so-called preliminary "statement of objections" to the proposed 7.4-billion-dollar deal.

The EC objections were limited to the combination of Sun's open source MySQL database product with Oracle's enterprise database products and "potential negative effects on competition in the market for database products," Sun said.

"A Statement of Objections is a preparatory document that does not prejudge the European Commission's final decision," Sun noted.

In a statement, Oracle said it planned to "vigorously oppose" the EC objections.

"The transaction does not threaten to reduce competition in the slightest, including in the database market," Oracle said.

The US Justice Department, which gave the deal the green light in August, also reaffirmed its support on Monday.

"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 anti-competitive," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Molly Boast said.


- AFP/so