Oracle closes $7.4-bn Sun deal

Software major Oracle Corp has completed the takeover of hardware company Sun Microsystems Inc for $7.4 billion.

The deal, which was announced nine months ago, would transform the IT industry, Oracle said in a statement on Wednesday.

The two companies, which have a significant presence in India, together employs more than 26,000 people in the country. Oracle has more than 25,000 employees in India while Sun Microsystem has 1,200 people.

The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle's largest business. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle can optimise Oracle database for some of the unique, high-end features of Solaris.

"With the addition of servers, storage, SPARC processors, the Solaris operating system, Java, and the MySQL database to Oracle's portfolio of database, middleware, and business applications, we plan to engineer and deliver open and integrated systems - from applications to  disk - where all the pieces fit and work together out of the box," Oracle said.

The European Union's antitrust watchdog has approved the Sun-Oracle transaction last week saying the deal would not restrict competition in the database's market. The approval from the EU came after months of investigation.

In April last year, Oracle has agreed to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion or $9.50 a share in cash.