Today we read the news that Sun is acquiring MySQL. As MySQL users and customers, it will take a bit more time for us to digest what to think of this, but for MySQL, it's certainly a good achievement, and I want to be among the first to congratulate Monty, Mårten and all other dedicated MySQL folk on this. I hope to hear soon about the sort of development and administration tools Sun is know for to reach also MySQL users, and if that turns out to be the path, then as customers we can happily welcome this event. I welcomed before Sun's open sourcing of Java, another key technology for us, and now we find our primary database solution to be under the same roof.

Update: wow, what a reaction from the stock market today. Sun paid $800M in cash plus $200M in stock options to acquire MySQL, and as a result, its own share (JAVA) went up by 6% or an otherwise very mixed market day.. So they gained that billion back in market cap one in one day. In effect, Sun got MySQL for free. Great move all around :)

I've also had a bit more time to think about the implications for us, and while I certainly want to hear more about the plans, my feeling is that this is probably a good thing for us as a customer as well. MySQL will definitely benefit from Sun's engineering and QA experience - as long as they keep in mind that rapid innovation is going to be expected and required of them, as always.