Today’s Two Big Acquisitions

Sun is buying open source database maker MySQL for $1 Billion. More than 100 million copies of MySQL’s database software have been downloaded and 50,000 copies are downloaded daily. MySQL had raised $39 million from Benchmark, Index, IVP, Intel, and SAP, and was in IPO discussions. It’s good to see that MySQL has found a sustainable home inside Sun. A great cultural fit, besides all else. MySQL has been a pillar of the web 2.0 movement.

And finally, Oracle is buying BEA for $8.5 Billion. As I said earlier, the Enterprise Software lay of the land now has both Oracle and SAP armed with Middleware and Applications. Oracle and IBM also have databases, which SAP doesn’t. IBM, on the other hand, doesn’t have Applications. But it has Global Services.

Questions: Will IBM get into Applications? Will SAP get into databases? Will SAP / Oracle get into Services? And will Sun get into OpenSource Applications?