The main rival to Sun's MySQL database has always been Oracle not Microsoft, the creator of MySQL said, as the European Union nears an antitrust decision on a proposed $7 billion (Dh25.7bn) Oracle-Sun tie-up.

European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes told Oracle last month it had failed to diminish worries that the purchase would hurt competition. The EU has until January 19 to decide whether it will accept the deal.

Oracle wants a quick resolution because it said that Sun, the fourth-biggest maker of computer servers, was losing $100 million a month as rivals such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM poach customers amid uncertainty about the closing of the deal.

"The largest and the most common rival was Oracle. In every deal we were competing against Oracle," said Michael "Monty" Widenius, the founder of MySQL, in an interview.

Widenius, one of the most respected developers of open-source software, left Sun earlier this year to set up his own database firm Monty Program.

Sun bought MySQL for $1bn just last year and Oracle has said it does not plan to divest MySQL.

The global database market is dominated by technology heavyweights Oracle, IBM and Microsoft.

MySQL, newcomer to the industry, has pushed down prices of databases.

Widenius said that when large corporates start to use MySQL, they usually use it to replace databases running some 60-80 per cent of their applications – creating price pressure also on the databases used for the remaining applications.

Sun has lately positioned MySQL as a rival to Microsoft, but Widenius said not one of the large clients use MySQL on Windows, it has always had just a few developers working on Windows, and it has a direct, free rival there.

"This means that there is very little money to be made on the Windows side for MySQL. They are not going to make a profit there. The big money is on the Linux side where MySQL competes with Oracle, and where MySQL has put all their efforts during the past 10 years," said Widenius.

Keep up with the latest business news from the region with the Emirates Business 24|7 daily newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter, please click here.