US senators urge EC to expedite Oracle-Sun probe

(WASHINGTON) - A bipartisan group of US senators urged the European Commission on Tuesday to expedite its investigation into the proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems by US business software giant Oracle.

"Sun Microsystems' financial position has become more precarious and the Commission's inquiry has continued," the 59 senators led by Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah said in a letter.

"Accordingly, we respectfully request the European Commission complete its investigation of this transaction as quickly as possible," they said.

The senators said they "recognize that the European Commission has a sovereign right to thoroughly investigate transactions where corporations utilize the European Union's marketplace.

But they noted that the US Department of Justice "after an intensive investigation, closed its inquiry into this transaction without taking any action.

"In fact, the Justice Department did not find documentary evidence that this acquisition would harm competition," they said.

The EC has issued a so-called preliminary "statement of objections" to the proposed 7.4-billion-dollar deal, which was announced in April.

According to Sun, the EC objections cited "potential negative effects on competition in the market for database products."

The senators said, however, that they have been informed by Sun "that their subsidiary, which competes in this specific market, generates only 17 million euros (25.4 million dollars) in revenue and that the same market has competitors with capitalizations of tens of billions of euros."

Kerry, in a separate statement, said that "continued delay of the European Commission's decision on clearance threatens thousands of American jobs, so we felt compelled to ask for a speedy resolution."

Hatch added that he has become "increasingly concerned about the growing body of evidence that foreign regulatory agencies are unfairly using their review processes to impede the business of American corporations."

Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star, is the developer of the popular Java programming language. It announced last month that it was cutting 3,000 jobs over the next 12 months because of its delayed takeover by Oracle.