Monty Widenius, one of the original cofounders of MySQL, issued a statement Monday articulating his latest views about Oracle's acquisition of Sun. He shares the European Commission's concern that the deal will reduce competitiveness between database vendors, suggesting that Oracle should sell MySQL, a move that would demonstrate to regulators and the market that the acquisition is not going to erode choice.

Database giant Oracle reached an agreement to acquire Sun earlier this year following a failed bid by IBM. The acquisition represents major consolidation for the database market because Sun owns MySQL, the most prominent open source database platform. EU regulators have temporarily halted the acquisition so that they can study the potential implications.

Sun acquired MySQL last year and has faced a steady barrage of criticism over its handling of ongoing development. Widenius condemned Sun's release management practices when MySQL 5.1 was released last year with serious bugs. He finally abandoned Sun in February, citing dissatisfaction with the direction that MySQL was going under Sun's ownership.

Widenius launched his own company, Monty Program Ab, in order to focus on developing his own MySQL fork called MariaDB. He also founded the Open Database Alliance which consists of independent vendors that provide services relating to MySQL or develop various forks. Widenius has previously said that the organization could potentially help create a more transparent and community-driven development environment for moving the open source database forward in collaboration with Oracle. In his latest statement, he takes a much stronger position and calls for Oracle to turn over development entirely to someone else by selling MySQL.

"[Oracle should] be constructive and commit to sell MySQL to a suitable third party, enabling an instant solution instead of letting Sun suffer much longer," he wrote. "MySQL needs a different home than Oracle, a home where there will be no conflicts of interest concerning how, or if, MySQL should be developed further."

Widenius has enlisted consultant Florian Mueller to help communicate his message to the European Commission during the ongoing regulatory investigation. Meuller is well known in the open source software community for his efforts as the mastermind behind a 2004 lobbying campaign against software patents in Europe. Meuller is heading back to Brussels to represent Monty Program Ab and the MySQL community. In a public statement, he had some strong words for Oracle and called for the deal to receiver tougher scrutiny.

"Every day that passes without Oracle excluding MySQL from the deal is further evidence that Oracle just wants to get rid of its open source challenger and that the EU's investigation is needed to safeguard innovation and customer choice," he said. "This is highly critical because the entire knowledge-based economy is built on databases."

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has firmly rejected the prospect of selling off MySQL. He argues that the open source database doesn't compete with Oracle's enterprise products. The two database offerings target different sections of the market, he contends.

It's unclear if the EU regulators will accept his view and allow the deal to move forward, but the delays are certainly damaging. While the EC is conducting its investigation, IBM is cannibalizing Sun's server business and picking the bones clean. Ellison says that Sun is losing roughly $100 million per month. There might not be much left for Oracle by the time the acquisition is approved.