Political Involvement In Sun/Oracle Deal Shows Our Politicians Can’t Stay On Task

When I saw that the Oracle buyout of Sun has become a focus of a couple of U.S. senators, I immediately became a bit irate. It seems as though there is nothing that some of our representatives in government think is out of their purview.

I know that the people in Washington have to become good at multitasking, and that many things are on their plate purposely. however, with the two wars we are unnecessarily embroiled in, along with the current economic problems, and the coming problems getting healthcare reform passed, it might be thought that these people would know where the boundaries might be set.

The article on TechConnect tells the finer points of the problem -

Fresh on the case of the recent extension granted to Oracle by the EC, a large proportion of the United States Senate has signed an official letter to the European Commission regarding Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems – urging the competition authority to end their probe into the merger and allow it to finalize.

Republican Senator Orin Hatch and Democratic Senator John Kerry are leading the move that is urging the deal to be finished so as to minimise the clearly negative downfall that the two companies are currently battling through.

“The deal between Oracle and Sun was announced in April and seven months have gone by without a resolution. Continued delay of the European Commission’s decision on clearance threatens thousands of American jobs, so we felt compelled to ask for a speedy resolution,” said Kerry. “The EC is within its sovereign rights to set the rules for operation in its market, but 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.”

The letter cites references that could prove, or at least certainly suggests that the delay is politically motivated.

“I have 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,” said Hatch. “This transaction has been thoroughly reviewed by the United States Department of Justice, which has decided to take no action. Therefore, I hope the EC will quickly conclude their investigation into this transaction.”

However many in the industry, including former MySQL shareholder Florian Mueller, believe that this letter is purely nothing more than a massive lobbying ploy on the part of the politicians.

“In a regulatory process like this, resorting to lobbying is typically what companies do when they can’t win on the substance of a case. Apparently the Commission’s Statement of Objections was much stronger than Oracle wanted to admit so they asked some political friends for help, but I’m sure this won’t change the outcome.” said Mueller. He then continued to add “It would have been a better idea for the 59 senators to send a letter to Larry Ellison, asking him to commit to divest MySQL so he can close the transaction quickly. Oracle always said MySQL is small in terms of revenues and it’s the only regulatory concern left in this whole process, so Oracle could have a deal any day of the week by giving up MySQL. If the senators really want to speed things up, that would be the right approach.”

In the wording they might understand, I am increasingly concerned that the Congresspersons of this country can’t seem to detect boundaries to where their attentions should be contained. If commercial entities are having problems in other countries, perhaps they should simply pull out of doing business in those countries.

As for the attentions of Congress, prioritizing their time is a must, and I’m certain that the Sun – Oracle problem must not be enough a problem to bring it into the top 100 concerns of the day. Certainly Congress can contain themselves to the division in attention that 100 things would cause, otherwise we might accuse them of not paying attention to things important.

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