Oracle again swallowed MySQL

Unable to recover from last year's PeopleSoft takeover, Oracle was scrambling to swallow the open source database company MySQL - a sign that the software giant is getting ready for a strategic transformation. business.

Photo: Infoworld Although Oracle continues to diversify its products, Oracle's core business still revolves around proprietary software developed by the company. Meanwhile, MySQL is the exact opposite. This is one of the leading companies in the commercialization of open source products.

MySQL CEO Marten Mickos confirmed Oracle's intention in an interview at the Open Source Business Conference, but he refused to reveal details about when and how much Oracle "offered". .

However, like PeopleSoft at the beginning, MySQL refused to favor Oracle, citing: it wanted to maintain independence for the open source software company.

Smart step

According to analysts, Oracle's proposal to buy MySQL is a very smart move. Instead of fighting open source, they realized that at some point, open source is inevitable. Moreover, if it is inevitable, why not "pretend to be a strong man", hand in hand to rivals, "analyst Stephen O'Grady said.

According to O'Grady, Oracle could benefit from MySQL just as IBM had after acquiring Gluecode before (Gluecode sells open source Java application server software and competes with IBM WebSphere proprietary products. ). Now IBM provides Gluecode software in the form of a free product called WebSphere Community. And yet, MySQL acquisition also opened a significant new market for Oracle products.

On Wednesday, Oracle successfully swallowed Sleepycat, a small-scale open source database company, and since last year, InnoDB. Obviously, Oracle's open source ambitions are not so modest. According to a BusinessWeek newsletter, Oracle intends to acquire the open source application server JBoss as well.

Thien Y