Oracle Sees Unconditional EU Approval For Sun

The European Commission will "unconditionally clear the acquisition of Sun in January," Oracle president Safra Catz has just predicted, while also thanking customers for their "overwhelming" support. Hmm--sounds like Catz knows more than she's saying.As Oracle announced very strong second quarter earnings and better-than-expected revenue, the company featured this quotation from Catz in its press release:

"We expect the European Commission to unconditionally clear the acquisition of Sun in January," said Oracle President Safra Catz. "I want to thank all of our customers for the overwhelming support they have given us during this process."

The contentious hearings with the EU have dragged on for several months and have resulted in Sun having to lay off many many hundreds of employees while losing up to $100 million per month.

In that context, it would be sharply out of character for Catz to make such a definitive remark unless she had extremely strong assurances from the EU that the deal will in fact be approved.