Oracle submits MySQL proposals ahead of EC deadline

(Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.O), facing a regulatory deadline from the European Commission, announced on Monday a series of measures to help pave its way toward completing its $7 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems JAVA.O.

The European Commission has objected to the deal on concerns for competition due to the takeover of Sun's MySQL database business. The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the deal.

The company said it would not insist that a third party vendor's implementations of storage engines must be released under the General Public License (GPL), changing Sun's current policy.

A commercial license will not be required for third party storage engine vendors to implement the application programing interfaces available as part of MySQL's Pluggable Storage Engine Architecture, Oracle said in a statement.

Oracle had to submit final proposals to address the Commission's concerns by the end of Monday, in order to allow the regulator enough time to reach a conclusion about the deal by the January 27 deadline.

Oracle also said it will create and fund a customer advisory board "no later than six months after the anniversary of the closing" to provide feedback on MySQL development priorities.

Oracle said it was committed to make available appropriate funding for MySQL's continued development

"During each of the next three years Oracle will spend more on research and development for the MySQL Global Business Unit than Sun spent in its most recent fiscal year ($24 million) preceding the closing of the transaction," Oracle said.

(Reporting by A.Ananthalakshmi in Bangalore; Editing by Greg Mahlich)