Sun Microsystems is losing $100m a month while European
regulators dither over whether to allow its $7bn takeover by
Oracle, the database firm's chief executive said last
night.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison told dinner guests at the Churchill
Club, one of Silicon Valley's leading speaker forums, that the
longer regulators delayed, the more money Sun would lose, Reuters
reported.
Sales at Sun have crashed since Oracle agreed to buy the
struggling server maker in April. This was due to uncertainty as to
whether Oracle could complete the deal. IBM and HP have exploited
that uncertainty to win Sun customers.
The famously irascible Ellison, one of the world's richest men,
said he expected Europe to clear the deal without reservations.
Meanwhile, Sun reported a $147m loss for its latest quarter.
The European regulators are believed to be concerned that the
combination of Oracle's database plus Sun's popular mySQL database
may limit competition in the database market. They have until 19
January to decide, which means Ellison faces a potential loss in
Sun's value of more than $500m.