EU Signals Comfort With Oracle's Sun Bid

European Union antitrust regulators reacted positively to a proposal Monday by Oracle Corp. to safeguard the MySQL database, putting Oracle's bid for Sun Microsystems Inc. on a path to be cleared by the bloc. European approval is the last major hurdle for the $7.4 billion purchase. The EU has expressed concerns that Oracle could squelch MySQL, which as an open-source product can be downloaded for free, to protect its database franchise. Oracle is the world's largest database vendor; Sun acquired MySQL last year. In a statement Monday, Oracle said it would "continue to enhance" MySQL and release future versions under an open-source license. It also said it would make available certain programming details needed for others to work with MySQL, and would hold off on any copyright claims against third parties who use those details. The assurances fall well short of the demands of the deal's critics, some of whom had called for Oracle to spin off MySQL entirely -- something the company had adamantly refused to do.