Slashdot Mirror
US Gov't Lobbied EU To Approve Oracle-Sun Merger
littlekorea writes "Cables leaked by Wikileaks have revealed that the U.S. Government actively pressured the EU Competition Commissioner to approve Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems. The cable reveals that the U.S. went to great lengths to discover how the competition commissioner felt about the 'pro-competitive' nature of open source software and whether this would represent a threat to the US$7.4 billion deal."
Why should the EU decide this on their own? It's better that the Worlds Remaining Superpower (tm) be there to ensure they make the right decision. And it's Oracle. What could possibly go wrong?
Lobbying isn't that bad. USA officials had arrived to one conclusion, felt that the issue was very important to them and communicated that to EU officials. Regular co-operative communication between officials of two political bodies. If EU officials then arrived to a result which (considering all things, including any political capital gained or lost) was bad for us as EU citizens, then our own officials are to blame. Personally, I don't think that they did and there is nothing in TFA that implies otherwise.
In other words, the cables show that EU and USA officials of corresponding organizations actually communicate with each other when handling international issues. Nothing to see here.
Because they wish to do business in the EU, you know, the biggest economy in the world.
Europe's opinion matters because not being able to do business in such a large economy would make it pointless to procede with the takeover anyway as they'd have been better off not taking over Sun and keeping their EU business than taking over Sun and being ineligible to do business in the EU.
It's worth pointing out it's a two way street too. BAE, a British defence firm, bribed Saudi officials to get an aircraft deal, but despite them being a British company and the deal being with Saudi Arabia and hence having nothing to do with the US, the US still fined the company and BAE accepted and paid the fine because it'd rather continue to be able to do business in the US, with by far the largest military expenditure in the world, than not pay the fine and not be able to do business in the US.
This is the thing with an increasingly globalised world, companies are responsible for their actions wherever they do business, not just where they were founded or are headquartered- if you want to take European money, you need to play by European rules.
I think you mean:
By some people, for themselves and their buddies.
"What is the EU going to do if they merge in the US, prevent the new merged company from doing any business in the EU?"
DOH! Yes; Precisely that.
Isolationism does not just mean saying 'Fuck You' to your neighbors; It also means they shrug and say 'Fuck You Too' right back.
"Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
This sort of thing is exactly what diplomats do. They lobby other countries to take actions perceived as favorable for their own country. There is no evidence here of threats, extortion, or arm twisting. Just diplomacy.
Nothing to see here, move along.
What America needs now is an old dude to assume the role of high church office so that America can officially become a religious state. They can then live off the proceeds offered by the superstitious tourists.
I mean when you have a great Empire that implodes on itself after having succumbed to military spending insanity, what's left to do when everything goes to shit?
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Lobbying is a type of corruption. It can be legal in USA, but is a type of corruption that is not legal everywhere.
-Woof woof woof!
I think Wikileaks would be out to screw China too if they laid their hands on as many classified documents. Of course China would probably take the Russian approach to such disclosures and murder some people to make a point.
Well, Oracle is of course allowed to stop doing business in the EU if they do not like the rules there.
It might make some people (like you) and even some of their shareholders happy. But allow me to show you some numbers.
Oracle's fiscal 2011 income:
Total income: 35,622 million dollars
Americas (North and South): 18,352 million dollars
Europe, Middle East & Africa: 11,497 million dollars
Realistically most of the EMEA income is from the EU, just like most of the Americas income is from the US.
What you're suggesting is that they dump 32% of their revenue from day to day.
Some of that will be offset by laying off 22,394 employees in the EMEA, but that only makes up 20% of their total number of employees. Compare that to the 45,887 employees in the Americas.
The EMEA is a more profitable area for Oracle than the Americas from a pure income/employee point of view (514,000 vs 400,000 dollars)
But if we ignore the financial consequences, the competitive consequences of giving your main rivals 11 billion dollars a year and the sheer idiocy of believing that you shouldn't have to live up to the rules of the countries you operate in, then yeah - you have a really good idea there.
Go for it - I'm sure you'll have a lot of success at Oracle's next shareholders meeting.
It isn't so much what Wikileaks has to say, but the fact that Wikileaks has to be the one that says it.