Oracle to present case for Sun buy

Officials from the European Union will hear Oracle's case for buying Sun Microsystems in under two weeks' time, according to reports.

The database vendor has asked for a hearing which has been fixed for 10 December, a source close to the negotiations told Reuters.

Last week the European Commission granted Oracle more time to respond to anti-trust concerns over the proposed US$7.4bn acquisition.

Oracle was requested to respond to the objections by 19 January, but was given an extension until 27 January.

The main objection concerns competition issues that may emerge from the largest proprietary database vendor buying the owner of MySQL, the most popular open-source database on the market.

Oracle has argued that the deal will not threaten competition because its own database products are aimed at a different type of customer.

However, many commentators have urged Oracle to sell MySQL to a third party so that the deal can finally be approved.

Sun desperately needs the deal to go through as it continues to lose revenue to rivals IBM and HP.