Sun Buys MySQL for $1.14B
Sun Buys MySQL for $1.14B
January 18, 2008: In a surprise announcement, Sun will soon be diving into the enterprise database market thanks to a US$1 (AU$1.14) billion acquisition of the hugely popular open source database developer MySQL.
MySQL is one of the world’s fastest growing open source databases, and will deftly accelerate Sun's position in enterprise IT, giving it a respectable chunk of the US$15 (AU$17.04) billion database market and putting it head to head with the likes of Oracle, IBM and SAP.
MySQL is already a force on the internet, with millions of global deployments including Facebook, Google, Nokia, Baidu and China Mobile. Via integration with Sun’s technology, the open source databases popularity is set to further skyrocket, particularly in the commercial arena where it will gain new distribution opportunities through Sun channel partners such as Intel and Dell.
Sun CEO and president Jonathan Schwartz has dubbed the deal the most important acquisition in the firm’s history, and claims that “MySQL’s employees and culture, along with its near ubiquity across the Web, make it an ideal fit with Sun's open approach to network innovation.”
While it has traditionally been the largest contributor to open source, in one swoop the deal has turned Sun into one of the major open source vendors.
That said, the news immediately awoke some fears that the traditional LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) stack could be at risk as MySQL works closer with Sun and its Solaris and JAVA packages. However, this fear has been dismissed by MySQL community vice president Kaj Arnö in a post on the official MySQL blog; “MySQL grew with LAMP and MySQL without LAMP at its core is simply unimaginable.”
“Given Sun’s proven track record as the largest contributor to Open Source, I think MySQL users have plenty of reason to feel happy about the acquisition,” writes Arnö. “There are many companies that attempt to ride the wave of positive attention towards Open Source, but in my judgement, Sun gets it right.”
Sun will spend US$800 (AU$908) million to purchase all shares of the open source database firm, with the remaining US$200 (AU$227) million coming from stock options.
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