EU Still Open to Oracle/Sun: Report

WASHINGTON D.C. (TheStreet -- Oracle's(ORCL Quote) controversial $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems(JAVA Quote) could still get the green light from European regulators, according to a top E.U. official.

The European Commission issued a formal objection to the deal Monday. Officials voiced their concern about Oracle obtaining Sun's MySQL database technology, which has strong links to the open source community.

Despite the objection, a top European antitrust official says that regulators are keeping an open mind on the deal, according to Dow Jones.

Nadia Calvino, the E.C.'s deputy director general for mergers and antitrust reportedly told a Washington antitrust conference that no decision had yet been made on the deal. Calvino, however, reiterated the Commission's concern about MySQL.

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

The protracted acquisition, which has already been approved by the Justice Department and Sun shareholders, prompted a war of words between Oracle and the E.U. this week.

Set against this backdrop, Calvino's comments may be an attempt to cool the tensions surrounding the Sun deal. Even the Justice Department took the unusual step of commenting on the E.U.'s stance this week, saying that "the merger is unlikely to be anticompetitive".

European regulators have until Jan.19. to either approve or reject the deal, which Oracle had originally hoped the conclude during the summer.