New Snag for Oracle in Sun Deal


By JAMES KANTER
New York Times
Published: September 3, 2009


BRUSSELS — European regulators delayed the proposed takeover of Sun Microsystems by the software company Oracle on Thursday, indicating that the combination could squelch the growth of a popular, free corporate database program owned by Sun.

The decision by the European Commission to extend its investigation into the deal, worth $7.4 billion, is especially sensitive because the Justice Department has already approved the merger. Regulators in the United States questioned Oracle’s market power in some areas of its business but raised fewer concerns than the Europeans about open-source software.

The European Commission’s assertiveness has conflicted in the past with the Justice Department’s judgment. It has objected to mergers of American companies on several occasions, but in 2003, it outright rejected the merger of General Electric and Honeywell after the American authorities approved it. Mario Monti, competition commissioner at the time, said that G.E. would become too dominant in markets for aircraft engines.

In recent years, Mr. Monti and Neelie Kroes, the current European Union competition commissioner, have found themselves at odds with some of their American counterparts over whether to force Microsoft to change its Windows operating system.

American and European antitrust officials, legal experts say, agree far more often than they differ, other than in a handful of cases. “But there are somewhat different sensitivities,â€