Oracle has gained fast-track clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission in its proposed acquisition of middleware vendor BEA Systems. The deal is valued at $8.5 billion.

It also means the requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act's review period can be waived in the acquisition. The clearance will not necessarily result in a faster completion of the deal, since BEA officials have agreed to hold a special stockholder meeting April 4 to vote on the merger.

"The transaction still requires BEA stockholder approval and regulatory clearance from the European Commission," said an Oracle statement today on the closing phase of the deal.

BEA is the maker of the WebLogic Java application server and owner of Tuxedo, the C, C++, and Cobol transaction-processing monitor often used on high-end Unix systems. BEA was expanding a product line in business process management and service-oriented architecture when Oracle bid for the company. An initial takeover try last October was spurned by BEA management, but a second try in January netted the company $19.375 per share. The initial offer was $17.