For enterprises, the concerns are twofold. In the case of Oracle's $8.5 billion deal to purchase middleware maker BEA Systems, customers worry that overlapping product lines will result in the discontinuation of some products. MySQL users, meanwhile, will likely keep close tabs on whether new owner Sun (which has offered $1 billion for the Swedish open source database vendor) keeps the product code as open as they're accustomed to.
On the business front, the deals alter competitive landscapes.
"The Oracle acquisition of BEA will alter Oracle's internal software development, boost its SOA efforts, and of course add revenue to the company. The Sun acquisition of MySQL will change the face of open source software as part of user data centers - and affect the business of open source software in general," says analyst firm Saugatuck Technology.
