Oracle Gets EU Thumbs-Up For Sun Acquisition

Oracle (news, site) has announced that it has received regulatory approval from the European Commission for its acquisition of Sun Microsystems (news, site). The final hurdle -- unconditional approval from China and Russia -- is expected soon, after which the deal will be finally closed.

The deal was originally announced last April when Oracle and Sun finalized a financial package that included US$ 9.50 per share in cash. The transaction was valued at approximately US$ 7.4 billion. At the time Oracle said the deal would give clients long term strategic advantages as it would give them effective ownership of Java and Solaris.

Important across the entire software industry, for Oracle it’s something of a must. Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle’s fastest growing business, is built on top of Sun’s Java language and software. Oracle said the deal would result in continued innovation and investment in Java technology for the benefit of customers and the Java community.

The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimize the Oracle database for some of the, high-end features of Solaris.

The company will host an all-day live event for customers, partners, press and analysts on January 27th, 2010 at 9:00 AM Pacific time, at its headquarters in Redwood Shores, California. Stay tuned for more details and analysis of the deal and what it means for content management.