05 July 2010, 16:02

MySQL founder seeks to challenge Oracle's acquisition of Sun

Six months after the European Commission had agreed that the Oracle acquisition of Sun Microsystems could proceed, at the European Court in Luxembourg, Michael "Monty" Widenius has brought proceedings against the merger. Widenius was the original developer of MySQL the free and open source database. Sun bought his company MySQL AB in early 2008 for $1 billion, and copyright of MySQL then passed to Oracle with the acquisition of Sun.

A report in the Financial Times says that the European Commission is aware of the action, but does not yet know the grounds. A spokesperson for the Commission has said it will defend its decision in court.

Originally, the European Commission had expressed concerns about the future of MySQL following the acquisition. Eventually these concerns were resolved and permission was given to go ahead. Oracle had promised to continue to develop new versions of MySQL and to release them under the GPL.

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