BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Sun Microsystems Inc. gobbling up MySQL is perhaps the worst single event I have ever witnessed in the history of tech mergers and acquisitions.

The move, announced earlier this week, is potentially a disaster for the entire sector for reasons I'll outline here.

Let's begin by putting MySQL in perspective: It's the most competitive and biggest threat to Oracle Corp., if for no other reason than it's cheaper, and in many applications, more practical.

It's used extensively by the open-source community and is the engine that runs almost all the blogging software -- including the successful WordPress, which is used as the blogging-content back end for the New York Times, among other large commercial enterprises. Google Inc. GOOG, +0.32% and Yahoo Inc. YHOO use MySQL.

Now Sun JAVA has wrested control of this important piece of code.

Horrible track record

Sun has an awful track record with its acquisitions. Here is a recent official list. (Aside: What is that Mao-inspired picture of Jonathan Schwartz all about?)

What became of any of these purchases? I should mention that this official list is hardly the entire list.

“ I'm close to being convinced that Oracle wanted to buy MySQL to kill the product, but knew it couldn't pull off the stunt itself. So it sent in a stooge to do the job. ”

Sun's crummy results go way back and include unique and useful products such as TOPS -- a PC to Mac file-sharing OS, which was bought by Sun in 1987, then rotted from neglect.

For more recent botches, read an analysis of Sun's miserable track record on storage-company acquisitions here.

From another perspective, you have to wonder why MySQL was sold in the first place and who orchestrated this deal.

If anyone actually knew that MySQL was up for grabs, I expect that Google, Yahoo and certainly Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -1.04% would have been interested, and there should have been a publicized bidding war resulting in a much higher price than $1 billion.

Part of this silence stems directly from the fact that MySQL is a Swedish company, and heaven forbid the Swedes announce their intentions or do anything that would appear flamboyant or be interpreted as (gasp) bragging!

Puppetmaster Oracle

So who is the real beneficiary of this deal? MySQL is a genuine nuisance to Oracle ORCL, -0.18% .

I'm close to being convinced that Oracle wanted to buy MySQL to kill the product, but knew that it couldn't pull off the stunt itself. It would be too obvious, especially to European Union regulators. So it sent in a stooge to do the job.

The two companies, Sun and Oracle, have been strategic partners for years. On top of that, Sun cannot actually afford to spend a $1 billion on a company producing a mere $60 million in revenue and working outside its core competencies.

So who can afford it? Oracle, that's who. This deal stinks from top to bottom.

The only good news is that since MySQL is an open-source initiative, an immediate development fork will occur with a new open-source relational database appearing within a year or two, based on aspects of the original code.

The original MySQL will simply vanish over time, along with Sun's billion. Exactly how painful this transition will be for current users of MySQL remains to be seen.

As far as anything good happening from the Sun acquisition, I don't see it, except for the shareholders of Oracle.

Nice job, Larry.