IOUG Supports Oracle Acquisition of Sun

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG), an independent community of more than 20,000 international database and technology professionals representing companies, government agencies and educational institutions, today released a letter opposing the recent European Commission objection to the Oracle acquisition of Sun.

“Consistently Oracle has demonstrated its intention to define standard approaches that are open to all, and the acquisition of MySQL is expected to be no different”

IOUG President Ian Abramson said that IOUG organizations support complex, multi-vendor database environments. Its members run Microsoft, IBM and Oracle platforms; similarly many members are Sun customers. With this in mind, Abramson says, the IOUG has a unique perspective regarding the state of the database industry, including how Oracle approaches and supports the community.

Abramson said that recent objections from the EU inferring that competition and innovation will be reduced in the database industry through this acquisition does not translate to those in the IOUG community who support the profession. In fact, they believe competition will increase, according to Abramson.

Although the Oracle database may be proprietary, much of the technology that surrounds it is built on industry standards and open source technology, Abramson points out in his letter. Additionally, should Oracle drastically deviate from its historical pattern of supporting and enhancing the products it acquires, the IOUG believes the market would drive new competitors in the open source environment.

“Consistently Oracle has demonstrated its intention to define standard approaches that are open to all, and the acquisition of MySQL is expected to be no different,” Abramson said. “Oracle has shown it is a company that supports open standards. We anticipate that Oracle will continue to foster innovation and openness with MySQL following the acquisition and not hinder competition. Oracle has acquired numerous other companies in the past and has built on the strength of each to foster its growth. Oracle has previously acquired databases and has continued to support and enhance them, while providing critical business support. The acquisitions of TimesTen, Berkeley DB and Hyperion Essbase illustrate this very well.”

As technology and database professionals, IOUG maintains that Oracle's acquisition of Sun and MySQL will increase competition in the database market. By not approving this acquisition, IOUG believes the EU’s position will diminish competition by making a significant impact on Sun and its ability to remain competitive.

About the Independent Oracle Users Group

Founded in 1993, the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) is a global membership organization that enables Oracle users to enhance productivity with education and networking, to better solve business issues with best practices and technology and to have a voice to Oracle Corporation on product technology directions. The IOUG represents the voice of Oracle technology and database professionals serving more than 20,000 database administrators, developers, architects, technical managers and other Oracle professionals throughout North America and worldwide. For more information, visit www.ioug.org or call (312) 245-1579.