European Commission Approves Oracle's Acquisition of Sun Microsystems

Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) announced on Thursday that it has received unconditional regulatory approval from the European Commission to proceed with its acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: JAVA).

Critics of the planned merger have now pinned their hopes on Russian and Chinese regulators.

Michael "Monty" Widenius, MySQL's founder and an outspoken opponent of Oracle's purchase of Sun, said through a representative in a widely distributed email earlier this week that although the European Commission "may clear the acquisition any moment," he is now trying to gain the attention of antitrust regulators in Russia and China to block the acquisition.

However, Oracle said that it expects unconditional approval from China and Russia and that it intends to close the transaction shortly.