Thursday, February 9, 2012

Senators Urge Action On Oracle Deal

November 24, 2009

sun-oracle.jpgA group of 59 senators led by John Kerry, D-Mass., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, are urging the European Commission to move quickly to complete its investigation of Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems. In a letter to the commission, the senators expressed concern about Sun's "deteriorating financial condition and the possible negative effect on employment of the company's workforce."

The commission recently said it planned to investigate whether combining Sun's MySQL database product with Oracle's products could harm competition in the database market. In their letter, released Tuesday, the senators noted that the U.S. Justice Department has approved the deal. They added that while they understand the commission's need to investigate transactions that affect its marketplace, they noted that Sun has told them "that their subsidiary, which competes in this specific market, generates only 17 million Euros ($25 million) in revenue and that the same market has competitors with capitalizations of tens of billions of Euros."

"Unfortunately, Sun Microsystems' financial position has become more precarious and the commission's inquiry has continued," they wrote. "Accordingly, we respectfully request the European Commission complete its investigation of this transaction as quickly as possible."

Join the Discussion

The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.

Comments powered by Disqus

 

Archives

Monthly Archives

Categories

Recent Posts

Recent Comments


Contributors

Juliana Gruenwald

Tech Writer

E-Mail: jgruenwald@nationaljournal.com.


Juliana Gruenwald has been covering tech and telecom issues for more than a decade for National Journal, Interactive Week, BNA and Congressional Quarterly. This is her second stint with National Journal. She was recruited by NJ in 1998 to help launch its first tech policy publication, Technology Daily. She left in 2000 to cover international tech and telecom issues for Ziff Davis Media's Interactive Week magazine. She started her career at United Press International as the wire service's first Helen Thomas Intern. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. A Minneapolis native, she misses the lakes but not the cold.


Josh Smith

Tech Reporter

E-Mail: joshsmith@nationaljournal.com.


Josh Smith covers technology policy as a staff reporter for National Journal. He previously interned at National Journal Daily, a Senate press office, and the Deseret News in Salt Lake City where he covered the state legislature, courts, and crime. In 2009 he graduated with honors from Southern Utah University after managing an award-winning student newspaper as editor-in-chief. Josh has received state, regional and national awards for his political and policy reporting, including first place in CapitolBeat’s 2009 Best of Statehouse Reporting college competition. A native of drop-dead-gorgeous Utah, Josh lives in Virginia with his wife, Amber.