MySQL is going to the exchange

Marten Mickos, executive director of MySQL AB , spoke about plans to enter the stock exchange in an interview with Computer Business Review . At the same time, he added that there is no hurry, because his company received a fairly large amount of venture capital.

In February last year, the developer of a well-known DBMS received another $ 18.5 million, and the total investment reached $ 39 million, while about half of the venture capital money has not yet been used. Thus, now there is no special need to attract additional resources. However, the company is in talks with bankers who should help in the IPO process. MySQL owners want to make sure that, if necessary, they can go to the stock exchange this year.

Actually, this step was long awaited by analysts who thought that the development of MySQL would follow the same scenario as the development of another leader in the free software market, Red Hat .

The three founders of the private company MySQL AB have been working together since the late 80s. They began to attract third-party investment and actively develop their private business in 2001. They did a great job. To date, the number of users of the program is approaching 10 million people, and MySQL is the most popular DBMS under a free license. It has become the de facto standard for the new generation of web applications based on the LAMP software package (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Perl / Python). True, the number of subscribers to MySQL paid services does not exceed 10 thousand.
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Meanwhile, the success of the free development of MySQL has attracted the attention of the leader in the database market, the American company Oracle . A year ago, she made the first offer to buy a competitor. However, three Swedish friends and co-owners of the company rejected the offer.

But that was only the beginning. The richest Oracle corporation has almost unlimited financial resources and is not used to deviate from its intended goal. Recall at least many years of litigation with PeopleSoft, when Oracle easily increased its offer by one, two, three billion dollars, until finally it broke a competitor.

Oracle did not give up on MySQL and continued contacts with business owners throughout 2006. It is known that Oracle offered guarantees to preserve the MySQL product and hinted that it was able to provide technical support for all MySQL users. Moreover, Oracle is already actually promoting the MySQL product as part of its Unbreakable Linux program to support Linux users.

Now MySQL is a private company, and it is impossible to buy it without the consent of the owners. If the controlling stake goes to an open exchange, then Oracle, if desired, will be able to get it.

If MySQL decides to make an IPO, it will be the next one of the few open source companies that have decided to take this step . The first were Red Hat, VA Linux (now VA Software) and Caldera (now SCO Group) in 1999 and 2000. They were followed by Madrakesoft (now Mandriva) on Euronext European Exchange in July 2001, Turbolinux on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September 2005, and Trolltech on the Norwegian Exchange in July 2006. The next open source IPO is planned in October 2006 ( Sourcefire is going to get $ 75 million, located on the Nasdaq).