It’s off on the buyout trail again.
Database heavyweight Oracle has acquired Innobase Oy, a privately held Finnish company with close ties to open-source database company MySQL.
In buying Innobase, Oracle intends to continue developing Innobase’s technology, InnoDB. Oracle, the database-software giant, has already developed and contributed an open-source clustered file system to Linux.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Oracle has long been a supporter of open-source software, such as Linux and Apache, said Charles Rozwat, Oracle’s executive vice-president in charge of database and middleware technology, in a press release.
Innobase, a profitable company that was founded 10 years ago, makes a database "engine" called InnoDB for storing data to the MySQL database. Its engine is available under the open-source general public license GPL and distributed with the MySQL database, a low-end alternative to Oracle’s namesake database.
Oracle intends to continue developing the InnoDB technology and expand our commitment to open-source software, Charles Rozwat, Oracle’s executive vice president in charge of database and middleware technology, said in a statement. Oracle has already developed and contributed an open-source clustered file system to Linux. We expect to make additional contributions in the future.
The beauty of open-source software and the GPL license is freedom. As with all MySQL code, InnoDB is provided under the GPL license, meaning that users have complete freedom to use, develop and modify the code base, said MySQL CEO Marten Mickos. This also means that database developers now have even greater flexibility to use MySQL and Oracle in the same environment.
Open-source software is developed by a loose-knit community and is generally free to download in its raw form. Companies generate revenue by supporting the software, rather than selling licenses to the code.
MySQL said in a statement that Oracle’s move is an endorsement of the open-source movement.
MySQL is one of a handful of smaller companies that is using open-source licenses and business models to take on entrenched database suppliers.
Facing competition from open-source alternatives, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft have each lowered their database prices and created low-end bundles aimed at smaller organizations and partners.
Oracle, which is planning a $5.85 billion US acquisition of Siebel Systems Inc., said last month it was not presently planning another large purchase. Separately, Oracle president Charles Phillips indicated at a recent press briefing that the company might acquire open-source software vendors.
Earlier this year, Oracle bought rival PeopleSoft Inc. and the smaller software maker Retek Inc.