John Brian Fast, CPA

MySQL is a relational database management system application which has more than six million installations world-wide.  MySQL stands for “My Structured Query Language”. The system runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases.

The history of MySQL. 

• 

  Michael Widenius

  The original development of MySQL was started by co-creators Michael Widenius and David Axmark in 1994.

• A Windows version was released on in 1998 for Windows 95 and NT.
• Version 4.1 was released into beta testing in June 2004 followed by a production release in October 2004.  The new version included R-trees, B-trees, subqueries, and prepared statements.
• Version 5.0 was released into beta testing in March 2005 followed by a production release in October 2005.  This version introduced cursors, stored procedures, triggers, views, and XA transactions.
• Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL on 26 February 2008.
• Oracle Corporation proposes acquiring Sun Microsystems in a $7.4 billion takeover agreement, finalized after an alternative buyout of Sun by the computer manufacturer IBM was not completed.

Euroupean Union

Oracle’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun is being held up by an investigation by the European Commission. The commission’s main concern seems to be Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL. A takeover by the world’s leading proprietary database company of the world’s leading open-source database company “compels the EU Commission to closely examine the effects on the European market,” according to Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

The European Union’s antitrust regulator is right to be concerned about Oracle taking over MySQL, according to co-creator Widenius, who left Sun in February.  “MySQL needs a different home than Oracle where there will be no conflicts of interest concerning how, or if, MySQL should be developed further,” Widenius wrote.  Widenius’s company, Monty Program AB, is developing MariaDB, a branch of MySQL.

Oracle Oligopoly Octopus

“Oracle should resolve antitrust concerns over its acquisition of Sun Microsystems by selling its open-source database MySQL to a suitable third party,” Widenius said Wednesday, October 21.  “The key objective is to find a home outside Oracle for MySQL where the database can be developed and compete with existing products, including Oracle’s,” said Florian Mueller, a former MySQL shareholder who is working with Monty Program AB to protect the software’s open source status.  “A prospective buyer should have both technical competence and large resources, and no conflicts of interest,” Mueller said.

However, Oracle still seems intent on keeping MySQL. “The company plans to increase its investment in the open source MySQL database,” Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said at last week’s OpenWorld 2009 conference.

“If Ellison changed his mind and decided to sell MySQL, open source companies like Red Hat and Novell would be on top of the list of potential buyers,” said Bo Lykkegaard, software analyst at IDC.

Recommendation:  The European Union’s Competition Committee should block the acquisition of MySQL by Oracle.  Further, the US Justice Department should re-review the Sun acquisition by Oracle.  More competition will provide better and more innovative software products in the long run.