Oracle-Sun Deal Closer to European OK

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Oracle's(ORCL) $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems (JAVA) could get approval from European antitrust regulators next week, ahead of the European Commission's Jan. 27 deadline, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources close to the companies.

Other hurdles to the deal include regulatory approval in Russia and China, although those countries also are expected to approve the deal, sources told the Journa.. The deal itself should close soon after regulators take action, they added.

The deal was cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice in August 2009. However, European regulators had expressed concern about Oracle gaining control of MySQL, a database program developed by a Swedish company that Sun purchased in 2008.

The European Commission declined to comment for the Journal.

Oracle tried to address EU regulators' concerns in December by saying it would "continue to enhance" MySQL, publish programming details of MySQL to help others create applications and that it would not pursue copyright claims against other companies that incorporate the software, the Journal reports.

People close to the companies told the Journal that back-office personnel, such as human resources, marketing and support staff would be let go while sales and engineering teams would largely survive. They added that the job cuts could be in the low thousands.

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