or What Makes a Freedom Fighter Join a Giant?
or Ten Reasons to Get Acquired

At MySQL there were few things we loved as much as the thought of being our own masters. We had always been contrarians and we prided ourselves with not following what we saw as outdated ideas from big companies. We made the dolphin on our logo jump surprisingly from right to left (as opposed to the typical left to right) - because we wanted it to be clear: we were not afraid to be different. We decided that people can work from home so we can hire the best and brightest anywhere in the world – not just Stockholm, Seattle or Silicon Valley. We cherished heated debates in the company – and there were many. When other companies dictated alignment, we celebrated dissonance and accepted that there could be multiple viewpoints. When others gathered their staff at a prestigious hotel somewhere in the USA, we summoned our engineers to a primitive sanatorium outside St. Petersburg, Russia. We did it our way. At times it was difficult –even chaotic, but we loved it even more for that reason. It created a passion and strength inside the company.

So why did we change our minds in a few short weeks? What made us think that Sun Microsystems would be a good home for us?  What made this better than an IPO? Why did we abandon our revolution for a stable nation?  What was it in Sun Microsystems that attracted us? And, most importantly, will we be able to maintain the passion that has driven us to where we are today?

Let me start in a typical Scandinavian contrarian way: Perhaps we will be unable to maintain our passion within Sun. And at the most extreme, perhaps we should not have done this deal. The reality is it will take many years before we can judge this decision to know if it was the right course.

But let me also state that there is probably no better place for this "dirty dozen" (or perhaps “fanatical four hundred”) of MySQL than inside Sun Microsystems.  Sun may have gone through some recent years of lackluster performance. But they have never deviated from their devotion to innovative technology and the well-being of the individual. And in the last few years, they have come back with a vengeance – so much that their current drive and their courage make MySQL look timid and corporate-like.  Open-sourcing Solaris and Java? Partnering with Intel, AMD, Dell and Microsoft? A data center in a shipping container?  Who would have predicted these actions a few years back?

I may sound naively excited about Sun in my writing here, and perhaps I am. Perhaps I drank the Kool-Aid along with the traditional Swedish vodka shot when we closed the deal. But in my life and my professional career so far, I have never regretted using my gut instinct to choose between two rational alternatives. Such choices are not easy, but I believe trusting one’s instinct leads to the most fulfilling path. And, perhaps for that very reason, such decisions are often the most successful.

Let's return to how everything got going. From the start of our company, we observed other players and contemplated their strategic directions. When it came to Sun, "The Network is the Computer" was a pretty strong statement back in the day. It is even stronger now. We always liked that statement, because MySQL was designed from the outset for the web economy. We not only grew because of the Internet, we helped the Internet grow by powering some of the biggest and most innovative sites in the world.

The next step was to get acquainted with Jonathan Schwartz. Many years ago we thought "He says smart things, but will he also act on them?" As time passed, it became evident that Jonathan's walk was in line with his talk. Under his leadership Sun open-sourced Solaris. They open-sourced Java. They started to partner with companies that traditionally were seen as Sun's competitors. They experimented, innovated and thought outside the box. A brilliant strategy in our minds.

Now let's fast-forward to November 2007. When Jonathan said that Sun would love to acquire MySQL, we didn't take that statement lightly. Over night we discussed it in our innermost circles, and the next day we called Jonathan back and said "If you really are interested in acquiring MySQL, we may really be interested in entertaining such a discussion." From there on, it took exactly 7 weeks to get the deal done, and with each day, excitement grew on both sides. Tired from the hard work but jazzed by the huge opportunity ahead of us, we announced the deal on Wednesday, January 16 at 5am in California and 8am in Orlando. That's where MySQL was holding its all-company meeting with 400 enthusiastic employees gathered in the grand ballroom of a major hotel. What a journey! Or to be more specific, what a first leg of a long journey!

The fact that it all happened so quickly makes it obvious that Sun's and MySQL's organizations have a cultural affinity that enables such fast convergence on a major strategic deal. What was it that justified the deal to start with?

Here is my entirely personal view of the factors that made the deal happen:

1.    Jonathan Schwartz is a brilliant CEO and he has a great team. Who wouldn't want to work for him?

2.    Sun has always had the same focus as MySQL on the networked world. Focus and alignment!

3.    Sun has become the world's strongest proponent of free and open source software. We are happy to be part of that!

4.    Sun has changed its strategy to include partnerships with former competitors. Hey, coopetition is what we always did!

5.    Sun has never stopped innovating or stopped investing in technology. Impressive!

6.    Sun has a huge field operation that can bring MySQL to more customers faster. Thank you!

7.    MySQL would be a great complementary fit in Sun's product portfolio. We like being useful! We love being uniquely useful!

8.    Sun's corporate culture is among the best a startup can ask for. We can work from home! We can innovate. We are thrilled!

9.    Sun is a bold and fun disruptor again, and we see a huge upside in its strategy. I am not saying that success is a given, but I am saying that Sun's new strategy is one of the most exciting this industry has to offer. We are all in!

10.    Sun was really eager to get us on board and we were treated with the greatest respect from the start. (And I hope we did the same in return)


In light of the above, the decision ultimately was easy. Initially it was not easy at all, because we all had such a strong commitment to go public and continue life as an independent company. It was hard work to change our minds. But once we saw that within Sun we would get the same benefits as going public, but with more resources and operational backing, we realized that Sun was for us like an IPO, only better.

On the day of the announcement, although many of our employees were still shocked by the change in direction, we contacted as many customers, partners and users as possible to tell them the news and listen to their reactions. That's the moment when it started to become clear to us how right the decision was. Users loved it, because today they know Sun as an innovative and open source-friendly company. Customers welcomed it, because they are looking for increasingly advanced services from us and they want to be certain that there are resources to back up the ambitious product roadmaps. Partners were excited about the new opportunities. As many of you know, we have strong partnerships with companies who traditionally were seen as competitors to Sun. Even these partners took the news as a potentially positive thing. All these hundreds of comments and congratulations made us feel good about the decision.

There has been some noise in the blogosphere about what happens to MySQL when it arrives at Sun. I would have no compunction saying "that's up to us" - that we have been clear all along that no one "from corporate" is coming to define the destiny of the company and community you and we have all built.

Now we are getting ready to be part of Sun and to do our best to build our dream of a billion dollars in database revenue within Sun. Getting there will involve risk and potentially serious competition. But at the same time we have never been as strong as we are now. We have work to do both in regards to technology and business, but we also have built a foundation from which we can aim very high. We have the most passionate community of users, customers, partners and employees. We are passionate about this mission. Essentially, we feel like we have joined a giant startup. Please join us on this exciting journey!

Mårten Mickos