WASHINGTON - THE European Commission has objected on competitive grounds to the proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems by US business software giant Oracle, Sun said on Monday.

Sun, in a filing with US regulators, said that the EC has issued a so-called preliminary 'statement of objections' to the proposed US$7.4 billion (S$10.3 billion) deal.

The EC objections were limited to the combination of Sun's open source MySQL database product with Oracle's enterprise database products and 'potential negative effects on competition in the market for database products,' Sun said.

The Santa Clara, California-based Sun noted that a statement of objections 'does not prejudge the European Commission's final decision' and is subject to appeal, and Oracle said it planned to 'vigorously oppose' the EC move.

'The transaction does not threaten to reduce competition in the slightest, including in the database market,' Oracle said in a statement.'

The Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle said 'the Commission's Statement of Objections reveals a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics, adding: 'The database market is intensely competitive with at least eight strong players, including IBM, Microsoft, Sybase and three distinct open source vendors,' Oracle said. -- AFP