Despite signs that the over-heated rhetoric is cooling down a bit, it’s too soon to predict a compromise in the transatlantic falling-out over Oracle’s plan to buy Sun.
European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes was more measured in her comments to reporters on Wednesday, suggesting that some sort of agreement might be possible that would protect competition in the database market and allow the dispute to blow over. That certainly sounded less punchy than her own spokesman’s attack on Oracle earlier in the week as “facile and superficial”.
The context, though – she was responding off the cuff to reporters – robs her gesture of too much meaning, and the Commission still maintains that it has a strong case.
What’s more, we hear that Ms Kroes has a Thanksgiving treat in store for Oracle, having already provisionally reserved a room to hold a hearing on the case in Brussels on November 25th – the day before Turkey Day. Not that this should be seen as an act of provocation, of course: we’re told that it’s just that there there weren’t many options in the calendar. But picking such an early date does suggest the Commission is pushing ahead with the case and not pausing to build extra negotiating time into the schedule.
