So first Oracle bought InnoDB. That wouldn't be big news except for the bind it puts MySQL in: InnoDB is the engine they use. Commercial users of MySQL now have a potential issue in their hands. It may never become a real one, but buying InnoDB was certainly a cheap way to give MySQL heartburn. To top that off, they just bought SleepyCat - which some had considered a possible replacement for InnoDB in MySQL. So much for that idea.

Recently, there have been rumors floating that Oracle is looking to buy JBoss. That would cap off an interesting set of buys, and would also get rid of a relatively small but troublesome corner for Oracle. Phil Windley explains what Oracle has done succinctly:

MySQL, InnoDB, and Sleepycat are all "open source" but they aren't "free." MySQL made a strategic blunder by not buying InnoDB to begin with. If they were, there'd be no company to buy. Take Linux as a counter example. Do you think that Microsoft would have bought Linux long ago and put the threat to their own OS to bed if they could? Sure, but fortunately there's nothing to buy. Oracle has effectively cornered MySQL by buying the storage engine they use. Moreover, they accomplished it much more cheaply than they could by buying MySQL outright.

Well, there may be "nothing" to buy on the Linux side, but I suspect that a purchase of RedHat and SuSe would change the playing field quite a bit. I would be astonished if Microsoft hadn't tried approaching one or both of them at some point.