Sun buys MySQL

Being the owner of a pioneer DBMS open source, Sun Microsystems fill a gap in its product lineup and become a supplier of software for companies of Web 2.0.
On Wednesday, Sun announced its intention to acquire $ 800 million for all shares of MySQL and allocate about $ 200 million in stock options. However, to capitalize MySQL popularity, it will have to make a serious adjustment. Many young companies want to create sites in the spirit social networks, and are already using MySQL. After purchasing a supplier database open-source, Sun will be able to serve those customers who seek to maximize interact with the customers, collect feedback from users and take a starting position on the second spiral of development websites.
"This step is in line with the strategy of Sun. It strengthens the position of the group LAMP [Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP], which is supported by Sun against Microsoft. Net. This is a strong initiative "- comments on databases analyst Forrester Research Noel Yuhanna.
The stakes in the open-source world are rising. $ 1 billion, which will pay Sun, almost equal to the sum of all previous acquisitions of open-source companies: Red Hat paid for JBoss $ 326 million; Citrix posted XenSource for $ 500 million; Yahoo commended for Zimbra $ 350 million, and Oracle acquired Sleepycat for unknown amount.
MySQL is a small fraction of the RDBMS world market of $ 15 billion: according Yuhanny, its revenue was close to $ 200 million a year. But this database, the most commonly used for new Web applications, particularly sites social networks, with the active involvement of users, such as Facebook.
Acquisition of MySQL, the first commercial company organized for the sole purpose of disseminating source code, makes Sun a major open-source company. It has already made an open its Solaris operating system and comes on the same path connecting with the software, making finally available as a software open-source Java Standard Edition.
"Customers have confirmed what we had long known: MySQL - the most popular platform on which developers are building advanced network services" - wrote in his blog general director of Sun Jonathan Schwartz. According to him, Sun - committed to the business model of open source when the source of income is not selling licences, and technical support products. When a database like MySQL, is the basis of the functioning of the business, many businesses are willing to pay for its support.
Yuhanna said that the acquisition will "Sun is in a new direction for her, to where is the web".