On a day when TechMeme is awash with the buzz about the O’Reilly Scandal I find myself wandering around the web reading about good old open source. Red Herring is carrying an article on the possibility of MySQL being a potential buyout target. Given that MySQL was in talks with Oracle earlier this year, it isn’t simply a case of VCs blowing hot air, but a scenario that is inevitable. I am glad that the Oracle deal didn’t go through. Roger Waters reunited with Pink Floyd for a day, so the thought of MySQL being part of Oracle isn’t that far fetched. That said, to me a buyout by Red Hat makes more sense. They just acquired JBoss, and have proved that they are capable of growing as an open source business. Adding MySQL to the product portfolio would give Red Hat an almost scary position in the open source movement (perhaps too strong a position). The Red Herring article seems to disagree with my position, but with JBoss in the fold and so many applications being built using LAMP it might make sense for Red Hat to become a player in that market. If they ever went that route, it would be interesting what the business model would be, as that would require some changes to how Red Hat operates at this point in time.
MySQL going the JBoss way?
On a day when TechMeme is awash with the buzz about the O’Reilly Scandal I find myself wandering around the web reading about good old open source. Red Herring is carrying an article on the possibility of MySQL being a potential buyout target. Given that MySQL was in talks with Oracle earlier this year, it isn’t simply a case of VCs blowing hot air, but a scenario that is inevitable. I am glad that the Oracle deal didn’t go through. Roger Waters reunited with Pink Floyd for a day, so the thought of MySQL being part of Oracle isn’t that far fetched. That said, to me a buyout by Red Hat makes more sense. They just acquired JBoss, and have proved that they are capable of growing as an open source business. Adding MySQL to the product portfolio would give Red Hat an almost scary position in the open source movement (perhaps too strong a position). The Red Herring article seems to disagree with my position, but with JBoss in the fold and so many applications being built using LAMP it might make sense for Red Hat to become a player in that market. If they ever went that route, it would be interesting what the business model would be, as that would require some changes to how Red Hat operates at this point in time.
Addnedum
Some additional articles that add to this discussion
Red Hat nixes database acquisition strategy
Red Hat takes pop culture approach to Linux push
Red Hat completes acquisition of JBoss
Technorati Tags: MySQL, Red Hat, Red Herring, Mergers and Acquisitions