European antitrust regulators to review Oracle-Sun deal

From InfoWorld: The European Commission plans to release its first opinion on Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems on Sept. 3.

The European Commission was notified about the deal on July 30, and it will now be looked at under the European Union Merger Regulation, according to a spokeswoman.

The Commission has an initial period of 25 working days to decide if it can clear the deal or if it needs to open a 90-day in-depth investigation, she said via e-mail.

Oracle announced in April that it planned to acquire Sun for about $7.4 billion in cash, or $9.50 per share. The acquisition would reshape Oracle, turning it into a hardware and software vendor that can compete more intensely with IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

But it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing so far. The U.S. Department of Justice extended its review of the deal on June 26 over concerns about the way rights to Java are licensed. Java is a software platform developed by Sun that can be used to develop and run applications on a wide variety of devices.

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