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February 16, 2006
MySQL finds Oracle resistible
Over at sister site, the alarm:clock, a post reports MySQL, a vendor of database software, rejected an offer from its much larger rival, Oracle.
There's a good quote from Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL that reveals his conviction or bravado, depending on your opinion of his open source hybrid operation: "We will be part of a larger company, but it will be called MySQL."
The firm is already pretty big, with more than 200 employees and it is growing. MySQL does not disclose sales but industry insiders say it that generated about $40M in sales last year targeting the enterpise market. The same sources say its sales growth is at a double-digit rate.
For a European software company, it has raised a signficant amount of capital, some $39M including its latest injection announced this week. And it just might be its last if the press release is anything to go by.
In the past, the quotable Mickos has told reporters that he is as "greedy as anyone else" when it comes to making money with software developed and distributed on an open source model (MySQL actually has a dual license model). And he makes no secret that the way he wants to satisfy that greed via the promotion of an open-source "stack" of innovative and competing software applications that will rival "closed" web and enterprise software, the kind that tends to lock in buyers. (The stack he refers to is the LAMPS stack which includes Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Perl / Python.)
It sounds like Mickos is aiming to remain independent. The firm could go public, that is if the NASDAQ ever recovers a healthy appetite for growth stocks.
Read MySQL slaps Oracle's buyout offer
Read Oracle tried to buy MySQL (CNET News)
Read MySQL secures VC (Newsforge)
Posted on February 16, 2006 03:58 PM | Posted to Business software | Permalink
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