Oracle-Sun Tangled in Russian Riddle

MOSCOW (TheStreet) -- Oracle's(ORCL) struggle to acquire Sun Microsystems(JAVA) is again in the spotlight, courtesy of a puzzling regulatory filing in Russia.

The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said Thursday that Oracle withdrew a competition filing related to the Sun acquisition, prompting speculation in Britain's Guardian newspaper and the Financial Times that the deal could be shrouded in uncertainty.

Somewhat confusingly, a note appeared on the FAS Web site Oct. 29 saying that regulators approved the request Oct. 30. Oracle had made the original filing in August "to acquire rights that can determine the conditions for doing business" related to Sun and its MySQL database, according to FAS.

Oracle declined to comment when asked by TheStreet to explain the mysterious filing. FAS has not yet responded to TheStreet's inquiry.

The merger is already under intense scrutiny in the European Union, and is facing stiff opposition from technology groups on both sides of the Atlantic.

The deal has already been approved by Sun shareholders and the DoJ, but has been delayed while European regulators scrutinize the merger's antitrust implications. Officials are mainly concerned about Oracle getting its hands on Sun's MySQL technology and thus limiting the choice for database software.

MySQL, which competes with Microsoft's(MSFT) SQL and IBM's(IBM) DB2 is one of Sun's core technologies, along with Java and Solaris. The technology, however, also features in free software projects such as WordPress, prompting concern that the deal could have widespread ramifications for the broader tech sector.

It is still unclear what implications, if any, the Russian filing has on Oracle's Sun acquisition, although the deal is clearly perceived differently on the other side of the Atlantic.