Sun Microsystems was in a great deal of pain for a long time before Oracle finally came along with a winning bid to acquire the company. Selling out isn't exactly a glorious chapter in the history of a big company like Sun, but it sure beats bankruptcy. But Sun's pain is still far from over.
The acquisition is a kosher deal as far as the U.S. Department of Justice is concerned, but European antitrust regulators are a different species, and they're really putting Oracle and Sun through the wringer. Meantime, Sun's downward spiral has accelerated. It just announced plans to lay off up to 3,000 more workers over the next year, and it laid blame directly on the delays Oracle is experiencing as it tries to rope it in. Sun's customers aren't too pleased with all the uncertainty surrounding its product lines, either.
European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is still not convinced that Oracle's purchase of Sun will not violate EU anticompetitive regulations. In addition, two NPOs -- Open Rights Group and Knowledge Ecology -- joined with software freedom activist Richard Stallman to voice opposition to the purchase in a letter to Kroes. Their big concern is what Oracle might do with MySQL if it's given control of Sun's properties. Getting MySQL out of the picture completely by selling it off might ease everyone's concerns, but Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has ruled that out.
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