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Sun to Acquire MySQL…

Well, that’s the news today, it was announced while MySQL has its not-quite-annual full staffmeeting in Florida.

Lots of people have already blogged on this, and various IRC channels have been chatting…. definitely interesting news, it seems. I didn’t blog earlier because a) I don’t follow any news that closely, as it tends to just warps your brain (try having CNN in the background for a few days – guh) and b) I wanted to have a little ponder on this first before writing something.

So… I think it’s good news, overall. MySQL was heading for NASDAQ, and I’ve always regarded that as an evil mix of a bad idea with a very serious risk. Someone called the Sun acquisition a “safe haven” for MySQL, and in this context I agree with it. Better than floating on the stock market, and getting gobbled up.

The amount to be paid (USD 1bln total) is similar to what people were publicly conjecturing for a stock float, which is interesting, since it was generally regarded as hype. I don’t mind a bit of hype though, in this case I now have a fair idea of what my MySQL stock is worth 😉

I do think Sun understands Open Source, but they do not have a perfect track record on related important things like code contributions and actual open development (participation/collaboration rather than merely contribution/publication). Neither has MySQL, in recent years, so while I don’t see a deterioration happening just because of this acquisition, there’s definitely scope for improvement. There’ll be the period where MySQL is busy integrating with the Sun business processes, that’s a pity, but perhaps it’ll do good after that.

Sun employees tell me its corporate culture is not too bad, and in terms of internal openness and accessibility of execs actually pretty similar to MySQL. Marten Mickos (MySQL CEO) has always been very open and responsive, I’m still a fan. I reckon it’s great that he’ll be joining Sun’s exec team.

As to what it means for product development, and services, only time will tell I suppose.
I (and Open Query) obviously keep an eye on that.

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