The EU has pushed back its deadline forreviewing the Sun mergerafter granting a request
from Oracle for more time to provide acounter argumentto concerns over
competition.
Originally the EU had planned to conclude its investigations
into the
merger on 19 January 2010, but it has changed the date to 27
January to give Oracle the time it needs to develop a response.
The investigation began in September after the European
Commission raised concerns that Oracle would gain complete
dominance in the database market. A war of words has since ensued,
with the EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes putting pressure
on the US supplier.
Last month, a spokesman claimed on her behalf that not enough
had been done to quash the competition concerns.
Oracle
announced in April 2009 that it was to buy Sun for $7.4bn, but
the merger has been held up by the EU despite getting
clearance from the US authorities. Sun has since blamed the
delays for directly contributing to it making
thousands of job cuts.
EU probe will hit customers, says Gartner >>
Where does Sun fit in Oracle's $35bn+ spending spree?
>>
A version of this story originally appeared on
MicroScope
>>