After IBM, now is the turn to Oracle. Oracle buys Sun and pays $7.4 billion for that acquisition ($9.50 per share), $5.6 billion if we take into account Sun’s cash. Is that a good thing or a bad thing for the Java community? Probably a good thing as it will allow Sun’s project to benefit from Oracle’s technologies. But only future will tell.
With Java, GlassFish, MySQL, OpenOffice, Solaris and its cloud computing services, that certainly widens Oracle’s possibilities. Hopefully Oracle will continue supporting adequately those famous open source projects. I am not concerned about Java, but maybe more about MySQL. While MySQL could certainly benefit from Oracle’s expertise in database field, Oracle could also put MySQL behind in order to promote its more profitable flagship product: Oracle’s RDBMS. The same is true for GlassFish and WebLogic. In any case, it is a very quick way for Oracle to have an open source offering for their products.
If we only consider Java, I have to admit that I rather see Oracle acquiring Sun than IBM doing it. The reason is simple, IBM already offers a Java runtime and they are competitors in that field. An acquisition by IBM would reduce the competition in that areas, which is always a bad thing for customers. In my opinion, Sun’s JVM largely beats IBM’s one, but it would still be a bad thing to see one of them die to the benefit of the other.
Author: Jonathan Demers