Sun to buy MySQL for $1b
SANTA CLARA, CA January 16, 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MySQL AB, an open source icon and developer of one of the world’s fastest growing open source databases for approximately $1 billion in total consideration. The acquisition accelerates Sun’s position in enterprise IT to now include the $15 billion database market. Today’s announcement reaffirms Sun’s position as the leading provider of platforms for the Web economy and its role as the largest commercial open source contributor.
Wow. That really makes sense for Sun and makes the chaps from MySQL nicely rich!
Sun have already shown themselves to be pretty into the Open Source thing. In the last couple of years they have Open Sourced Java and Solaris. Two of their biggest software platforms. I recall Jonathan Schwartz saying how, after giving away the software for free they made more money from it… That makes perfect sense to me, but it doesn’t seem to work for Microsoft yet.
Cool
