A sip of Austrian economics, please. 

 Usually you would believe lobbying was a professional task but when it comes to European competition law American larger companies usually apply a mad rhino strategy with slanderous communication against the EU Competition authorities, Commissioner N. Kroes and her administration, and they call into question the alphabet rules of order policy. In the US it seems acceptable to bully competition authorities and depict them as consumer agencies you are safe to ignore. Apparently in the US business people do not appreciate competition enforcement. 

Dark SUN...

 Now the Oracle takeover of SUN Microsystems is under investigation in the European Union, and there is a concern with the MySQL part of the SUN portfolio.  The computer company SUN Microsystems earlier overtook the database company MySQL, and it is now in a difficult commercial situation, hit hard by the financial crisis. Fortune 500 corporation Oracle decided to take SUN Microsystems over. MySQL is the most popular database in the web sphere (you probably know that many websites use LAMP servers, the M in LAMP stands for MySQL.) Oracle leads in the Enterprise database management sector and still makes a whole lot of money with database management. MySQL as part of the SUN product portfolio strategically challenges their cash cow.  

Given the market penetration of MySQL European competition regulators were asked by competitors to investigate the acquisition. Of course some competitors are playing their games, and Oracle and SUN Microsystems are said to lose a fair amount of money because of the delay in the course of the competition review. Understood.

Lobby letter this mornin'

SUN-Oracle's unreasonable approach towards the EU regulators, first ignorant, then aggressive is again reflected in a letter signed by 59 US-Senators from both sides of the aisle who kick the ass of the EU-commission to speed up the investigation:

Chargé d’Affaires Angelos Pangratis 

 Acting Head of Delegation
Delegation of the European Commission to the United States
2300 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037

 Dear Chargé d’Affaires Pangratis:

  As fellow government officials committed to the principle that competition is the cornerstone of healthy economic growth, we would like to take this opportunity to share our thoughts with you as to the proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc. by Oracle Corporation.  In addition, due to Sun Microsystems’ deteriorating financial condition and the possible negative effect on employment of the company’s workforce, we respectfully request the European Commission expedite the completion of its investigation into this transaction. 

  The United States Department of Justice, after an intensive investigation, closed its inquiry into this transaction without taking any action.  In fact, the Justice Department did not find documentary evidence that this acquisition would harm competition.   We recognize that the European Commission has a sovereign right to thoroughly investigate transactions where corporations utilize the European Union’s marketplace.  Further, it is our understanding the Commission is concerned about competition in the database software market.  However, we have been informed by Sun Microsystems that their subsidiary, which competes in this specific market, generates only €17 million in revenue and that the same market has competitors with capitalizations of tens of billions of Euros. 

Unfortunately, Sun Microsystems’ financial position has become more precarious and the Commission’s inquiry has continued.  Some have raised concerns over the company’s ability to continue to employ its thousands of workers.  Accordingly, we respectfully request the European Commission complete its investigation of this transaction as quickly as possible.   

  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

You may be surprised that the commercial situation of  SUN Microsystems is depicted as desperate. The argument is SUN's desperation, not Oracle's interests in the takeover.

Senate hates E-U  

The media quotes the US-Senators:

Orrin Hatch ...has become "increasingly concerned about the growing body of evidence that foreign regulatory agencies are unfairly using their review processes to impede the business of American corporations." 

John Kerry: "...with our Department of Justice having made a compelling case that the merger does not pose a threat to competition, it is fair to ask the EC for the basis on which a delay on decision making is warranted and to make a decision one way or the other.” 

 Crazy. Who do they think they are?

... and what really happened

Now here is the other side of the story:

 "Oracle requested the extension in order to have the opportunity to further develop its arguments in response to the Commission's concerns," said the European Commission.

 Indeed, Oracle was just granted more time by the EU-Commission. Maybe Senator John Kerry (Mass.) should better call Oracle's Larry Ellison, the domestic "basis on which a delay on decision making is warranted".