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Senators Ask EC To Let Oracle-Sun Deal Go Through
An anonymous reader writes "The European Union has managed to do something that US Presidents often find difficult: to make 59 US Senators from both sides of the aisle agree on something. A group led by John Kerry (D) and Orrin Hatch (R) has sent a letter to the European Union, asking it to wrap up the investigation of the Oracle-Sun merger and let the deal go through. Interestingly, the letter emphasizes the damage the delay and uncertainty are doing to Sun." The article paraphrases a Gartner analyst, who points out that the Senators' letter "comes from a US point of view and doesn't take into account how the EU operates."
From TFA:
"The DoJ runs on completely different competition rules than the EU," he said. "The DoJ looks at where there is harm to consumers. Their decision is businesses can look after themselves. The EU is more likely to be protective of competitors. They believe trade is better with more small competitors."
I am glad I am not the only one believing that... ;-)))
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
SAP 1 Oracle 0
For starters: This is not a clever approach to deal with the European commision. Oracle could sell MySQL and there would be no problem at all. But no, ol' Larry decided to get confrontational.
Further, the EU Commissions role is to ensure a competitive, fair and transparent market and to protect the consumer from abuse not to ensure Suns or Oracles profit, as the letter appears to imply.
Thanks for trying, but no cigar for you senator dudes.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
Why is the EC holding this up? There are no legitimate concerns...MySQL is OSS, so let it be.
I can't help but feel the EC is trying to set an example, at the expense of actually doing the correct thing.
The lobbists agree => the senators agree.
Agreed. And I never understood why people aren't up in arms over the lobby situation. Isn't lobbying just organized corruption?
My UID is prime. Hah!
The EC has to stop interfering in things it does not understand.
First the ridiculous Microsoft case, and now this?
The easiest way to stop the EC from interfering is by not selling your products on the European market. ...)
Use our market, obey our rules. Simply put. (It's a bit like the old American saying about 'eating cakes'
Lets see if I got this right:
- The legislators of the 2nd largest western economy, pushed by lobbyists and in order to further the economic gains of companies based in their economic zone try to interfere in the internal affairs of the top largest western economy.
Sure, that's bound to work.
It's just as likely succeed as it would be if members of the European Parliament where trying to influence the US competition authorities with regards to European companies that have activities in US soil.
It's very simple, if Oracle wants to sell in the European markets they have to obey the European fair-competition rules. If they don't like them they can leave the market. In the same way, if any European company wants to sell in the US market they have to obey the US fair-competition rules or leave the market.
Honestly, Oracle having the legislators of a sovereign nation trying to influence the due process in an totally different economic and political block might very well be construed as an insult and have the opposite effect of what they intend.
What's next, will we have the People's Assembly of China send a letter to the European Commission saying "You guys over-reacted on the whole toxic paint on child's toys thing" ???
Because there are tons of vested interests. SAP is based in the EU, so there's the possibility they're lobbying the EC on this one. One assumes that Oracle / Sun are lobbying US senators (and politicians in the EU for that matter?). The EU, as the article points out, works under different rules and with a different viewpoint - Oracle and Sun agreed to be bound by local laws when they entered the European markets. The EU probably has a political interest in seeming to stand up to the US, though you'd hope the regulators wouldn't be swayed into unprofessional behaviour by that. The US has an interest in avoiding a precedent where the EU has power over one of their companies. Sun and Oracle are probably trying to dodge awkward questions and hope for the EU to cave. Really, there's no reason to believe 100% that anyone is acting entirely in good faith here, especially given we don't have access to all the information.
We're seeing an interesting consequence of the increasingly interconnected world, though, in that we're reaping business advantages from setting up shop in multiple large markets but in turn companies are then subject to multiple jurisdictions regardless of their country of origin. It seems like the EU and US regulators working together on a decision might be more appropriate, given neither of them has absolute authority to give the go ahead. A co-operative solution to regulation decisions would make a certain amount of sense since it's de facto what we have now. It's surely in nobody's interests for the decision to be left hanging.
I would tell the EU to pound sand. If they want to put the kabash on this, I would tell the EU that I will close every EU based office and stop selling my products to the EU
or
they can let the deal go through.
Take your pick. My bet would be that within 90 days EU businesses would be putting their own pressure on the EU to allow them to continue to purchase Sun/Oracle products.
What the hell does a government think they are doing controlling a PUBLIC company? You want our products? Buy them. You don't want us to participate with your businesses? See ya.
This is the difference between the capitalist based US and the liberal/communist mentality of the EU. The fact that the current US administration isn't backing the senators trying to tell the EU to let this deal goes through only underscores the liberal/communist direction of this administration. They think the government should be able to tell a business how they should do business. This may be true to a point (you have to make safe products that don't kill people) but they should not be able to to prevent two companies merging because of a freeware software package. MYSQL is OSS. What more do they want?
The grocery, beer, and other cases aren't exactly relevant here. In this case, letting Oracle buy Sun they would create a bigger and more powerful direct competitor to the largest European software company, SAP. This is not the case with something like groceries, where non-EU presence is quite limited anyway.
I guess as an employee of SAP I should be happy with the decision, but I don't care too much and think this decision is a pretty stupid one. Yeah, I don't by the MySQL argument either. Worst case scenario is that MySQL is completely killed off, and everybody has to switch to another database, like Postgres. Actually, this makes it sound like the best case scenario!
PS. The harshest measures so far were against US companies. Does Intel and Microsoft mean anything to you?
>>>There is a USian collective consciousness. There is no European collective consciousness.
Wait 20 or maybe 40 years, until the old people die out and the new generations start calling themselves "Europeans". In fact I'm already seeing this phenomenon taking hold with teenagers and college-aged adults, where they identify themselves as European and then I have to ask a followup question, "What part of Europe?"
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Last time I checked, these are American companies. Just go ahead and do the merger already. Tell the EU where to get off. You don't have to do business with the EU, they can go without. Cut them off. See how they like that. :P
Does Intel and Microsoft mean anything to you?
They weren't forced to split up like ING and Royal Bank of Scotland, and those banks weren't even guilty of violating anti trust laws, it was their punishment for receiving government bailouts.
Anyway, the point I wanted to make was that I believe the perception of bias against American companies is an artefact of selective reporting. If evidence to the contrary were to come up, I suspect retaliations in the form of sanctions and/or WTO would follow.
As I understand it, the EC anti trust office acts when it receives complaints rather than going out searching for violations. I suppose it's possible they acted on a complaint filed by SAP, but that doesn't necessarily mean the EC had an anti American or pro SAP bias.