E.U. requirements may force Oracle to drop Sun deal

Larry Ellison, the founder and CEO of Oracle (ORCL), would claim he has been patient while regulators work through his company's deal to buy Sun Microsystems (JAVA), which is probably a fair assessment. Oracle cut a deal to purchase Sun in late April for a price of $9.50 a share, or $7.4 billion. An offer that was much higher than Sun's share price at the time of just above $6.

U.S. regulators approved the buyout fairly early, but E.U. regulators have been much more sluggish. Oracle promised its shareholders that the Sun deal would help earnings, so the smaller company was forced to lay off 3,000 people last month to help its faltering margins. And to make matters worse, Sun's server business has deteriorated since the acquisition was announced.