I’d thought about Oracle buying Sun. But, then I thought, “Larry Ellison isn’t that dumb.” Well, I was wrong. Ellison is that dumb. Oracle is buying Sun in what may be the most moronic technology acquisition of the 21st century.
I’ve looked at the Oracle/Sun deal. I’ve read Ellison’s explanation as to why the buyout makes sense. I don’t see it. I don’t see any upside to this deal. And, on top of that, Oracle, which spent $7.4 billion for Sun, vastly overpaid for the company. This deal will make money for Sun’s executives and stockholders, but it will prove to be a disaster for Sun’s users, developers, and employees.
You see, I know Sun’s technologies well and I just don’t see a win here. IBM and Sun made sense. Despite their cultural differences, I could see Sun’s software prospering with IBM. But Sun and Oracle? I only see most of Sun’s technologies’ dying with Oracle in charge.
Specifically, here’s how I see it playing out.
1) MySQL is dead. Long live MySQL. Oracle doesn’t have much to say about MySQL. Why should they? They’re going to quietly kill the open-source DBMS as fast as possible.
Unfortunately for Oracle, it’s too late.
