The European Commission has officially approved the Oracle-Sun merger, paving the way for Oracle to take over Sun Microsystems in a deal valued at more than $7 billion.
"I am now satisfied that competition and innovation will be preserved on all the markets concerned. Oracle's acquisition of Sun has the potential to revitalize important assets and create new and innovative products," said Neelie Kroes, the European antitrust commissioner, in a statement.
The EC's approval comes after months in limbo during which the Commission expressed skepticism about the antitrust aspects of the proposed deal. Concerns that Oracle's ownership of the MySQL software would pose a competitive threat in the database market prompted the European regulators to launch an in-depth investigation in September.
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