Sun Shareholders Approve Oracle Merger

Almost three months since it was first announced, Sun Microsystems shareholders approved the deal with Oracle. In April Oracle announced it would acquire the tech company for about $7.4 billion, buying common stock at $9.50 per share, leading to much debate about the future of some of Sun's products and technologies. The shareholders’ vote held yesterday saw 62 percent of them in favor of the acquisition, as expected, though Jonathan Schwartz, Sun CEO, and Chairman Scott McNealy weren't present, with Schwartz reportedly ill.

Sun had been looking to sell for a while after nearly a decade of declining revenue and profits. The Oracle announcement came after a crumbled $7 billion deal with IBM and several other proposed buyers. Oracle may have made a very good deal and a relatively cheap one acquiring some great technologies that should better position it especially against competitor IBM.

One of the highlights are the cloud computing technologies and services Sun has, making Oracle an important player in a market where it had no presence previously. IBM has also made some moves in the cloud computing segment recently and it looks like the competition is heating up. Apart from the cloud computing capabilities Sun also brings hardware and software solutions allowing Oracle to provide a complete package, something that only IBM has been able to supply until now.

However, one of the biggest prizes Oracle gets is MySQL, the open-source database system that has been a worthy competitor to some of Oracle's own enterprise database solutions. It's unclear what the deal means for MySQL or other open-source projects at Sun, which is causing worries for some in the industry.

The merger isn't in the clear just yet as a Department of Justice anti-trust investigation is still undergoing and has been extended beyond the usual 30-day period but there are no clear signs that the DOJ will object, with Oracle optimistic about the decision.