Oracle/SUN : les sénateurs US font pression, le fondateur de MySQL s’interroge

Pendant que Bruxelles analyse avec soin le dossier Oracle/Sun, 59 sénateurs américains viennent de rédiger une lettre exigeant de la Commission européenne « une prompte résolution » de l’affaire anti-trust. On les comprend : des milliers d’emplois américains sont menacés.

En Europe, Florian Mueller a reçu le feu vert de Michael « Monty » Widenius, fondateur de MySQL, pour faire écho de son opposition à la reprise de MySQL par Oracle suite au rachat de Sun. Nous reproduisons ci-dessous la lettre de Florian MUELLER en langue anglaise - faute d’avoir le temps de la traduire entièrement -.

Que dit cette lettre ? Elle estime que les sénateurs US auraient mieux fait de s’adresser directement à Larry ELLISON, pour qu’il retire MySQL de ses plans d’acquisition, ce qui permettrait à la transaction de se faire plus rapidement. Oracle a toujours en effet prétendu que MySQL représentait assez peu de revenus. C’est là pourtant le seul détail qui pose question à la Commission européenne. Il estime également que SUN est le seul responsable du problème que représente cette acquisition aujourd’hui. Sun aurait pu anticiper le problème et Oracle trouver une solution rapidement. Florian MUELLER s’interroge sur l’obstination d’Oracle sur le dossier MySQL, alors qu’il s’agit du seul point noir qui intéresse la Commission européenne dans cette acquisition.

La lettre de Florian MUELLER

In my role as a former MySQL shareholder and strategy adviser and an award-winning public policy strategist in Europe, and in close cooperation with MySQL creator and founder Michael "Monty" Widenius (see our mid-October announcement), I oppose Oracle’s plans to acquire the open source database MySQL (which is the only area of concern to the European Commission in this merger control process according to a recent SEC filing by Sun Microsystems). I would like to provide the following statements for you to quote from if you wish to include comments on the senators’ letter :

"In a regulatory process like this, resorting to lobbying is typically what companies do when they can’t win on the substance of a case. Apparently the Commission’s Statement of Objections was much stronger than Oracle wanted to admit so they asked some political friends for help, but I’m sure this won’t change the outcome."

"It would have been a better idea for the 59 senators to send a letter to Larry Ellison, asking him to commit to divest MySQL so he can close the transaction quickly. Oracle always said MySQL is small in terms of revenues and it’s the only regulatory concern left in this whole process, so Oracle could have a deal any day of the week by giving up MySQL. If the senators really want to speed things up, that would be the right approach."

"European companies also have to comply with American law and respect American regulatory processes when they want to do business in the US. It works both ways. Every regulatory authority takes care of its local market."

"Sun’s job cuts are unrelated to the competition case and there’s no way to let the shareholders of Oracle and Sun close a deal that would cause irreparable harm to the market. They can merge but only if there’s a solution for MySQL."

"The European Commission is in no way, shape or form responsible for Sun’s situation. Sun should have looked for an acquirer that doesn’t raise competition concerns or could have negotiated a better agreement to be more flexible in a situation like this. None of that is the fault of anyone in Europe and the solution can come from Oracle anytime."

"The limited revenues argument actually raises the question why Oracle doesn’t close the deal without that little thing called MySQL. It’s an anachronistic argument because there’s no doubt about the market relevance of Twitter or Wikipedia, which haven’t generated any revenues so far (Wikipedia just received donations). The merger control case is all about the important competitive force that MySQL represents."

Best regards,

Florian