Oracle-Sun deal approved

Shareholders of Sun Microsystems voted to approve a $7.4 billion deal that will allow Oracle to acquire Sun. The vote only took three minutes, indicating that it was little more than a formality. Sun had been courted by others, including IBM, but the Oracle offer was apparently too sweet for shareholders to pass up.

Our previous reports on this developing story posed questions about the future of several key web technologies, including MySQL and Java, both Sun products. Oracle has now created a nice little empire for itself, and fears that it will fracture or dissolve its new software acquisitions might be unfounded. Many large and small to medium sized businesses (SMB) rely on both MySQL for web applications, while others rely on Java and Sun’s server hardware for their websites.

MySQL database software is the third leg of the famous LAMP stack, which includes Linux, Apache HTTP Server, and PHP scripting language. Accoding to its website, over 100 million copies of the software have been downloaded or distributed. It is a favorite among web hosts and website owners alike. MySQL is available under multiple licenses, including free and open source models. Oracle has long been a database leader, offering a range of proprietary solutions.