MySQL AB
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Former type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Genre | Database software |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Sun Microsystems |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Founder(s) | Michael Widenius, David Axmark and Allan Larsson |
| Defunct | 2008 |
| Headquarters | Uppsala, Sweden and Cupertino, California, U.S. |
| Key people | Mårten Mickos, CEO Dennis Wolf CFO and EVP Mark C. Burton, EVP Sales Zack Urlocker, EVP Products Kaj Arnö, VP Open Source Community Relations Ulf Sandberg, SVP Worldwide Services Clint Smith, VP General Counsel Larry Stefonic, SVP Asia Pacific Kevin Harvey, Chairman Allan Larsson |
| Industry | Computer software |
| Products | MySQL, MySQL Cluster |
| Employees | 400 |
| Website | www.mysql.com |
MySQL AB (founded 1995, acquired by Sun Microsystems 2008) was a software company. MySQL AB is the creator of MySQL, a relational database management system, as well as related products such as MySQL Cluster. The company is dually headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden and Cupertino, California, USA with offices in other countries (Paris, France; Munich, Germany; Dublin, Ireland; Milan, Italy; and Tokyo, Japan).
With around 400 employees in 25 countries,[1] MySQL AB was one of the largest open source companies worldwide. Around 70% of the employees worked for MySQL from their home offices.[2]
On 16 January 2008, MySQL AB announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Sun Microsystems for approximately $1 billion.[1][3][4][5][6] The acquisition completed on 26 February 2008.
Together with Linux, Apache, and PHP, the MySQL Server forms one of the building blocks of the LAMP technology stack. The company claims a user base of over 5 million MySQL installations worldwide and over 10 million product downloads in 2004.
Contents |
[edit] Business model
MySQL AB representatives are commonly cited as champions of what they claim to be a "second generation" of open source companies.[citation needed] The revenues of both first and second generation open source companies usually derive from selling support, consulting services, and training for their products.
What generally distinguishes this "second generation" of companies, such as MySQL AB and Trolltech, from earlier "open source" business models is dual licensing — while the software may be made available under the provisions of some open source license, the software is, in fact, owned by the commercial companies who seek to derive revenues from selling traditional software licenses.
As an example, MySQL AB makes MySQL available under the GPL at no charge, but sells it under other more traditional licenses to clients who do not find the GPL to be ideal for their purposes, such as inclusion of MySQL AB technology in a closed source product.
Other sources of revenue for MySQL AB are providing support and consulting, as well as training and certification for MySQL Server. Together with some additional services, MySQL also provide this as a subscription-based product called MySQL Enterprise, which is also resold by other companies such as Dell, HP, and Novell.
[edit] History
- 1995 Company founded by Michael Widenius, David Axmark and Allan Larsson
- 2001 Mårten Mickos elected CEO
- 2001 First round financing by Scandinavian venture capitalists
- 2003 Second round financing by a group of investors headed by Benchmark Capital
- 2003 Partnership agreement concluded with SAP, acquiring the full commercial rights to MaxDB
- 2003 Acquired Alzato, a subsidiary of Ericsson
- 2005 MySQL Network subscription service launched
- 2006 Third round financing by Intel Capital, Red Hat, SAP Ventures, and others
- 2008 Announcement of acquisition by Sun Microsystems
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Sun to Acquire MySQL". MySQL AB. http://mysql.com/news-and-events/sun-to-acquire-mysql.html. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
- ^ "Fortune: MySQL: Workers in 25 countries with no HQ". Fortune Magazine. http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/31/magazines/fortune/mysql_greatteams_fortune/index.htm.
- ^ Jonathan Schwartz. "Helping Dolphins Fly". Sun Microsystems. http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/winds_of_change_are_blowing. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
- ^ "Sun acquires MySQL". MySQL AB. 2008-01-16. http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/2008/01/16/sun-acquires-mysql/. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
- ^ "Investor Relations - FAQ". Sun Microsystems. http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/investor/faq/index.jsp#14. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
- ^ "MySQL blogs: Sun acquires MySQL". http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/sun-acquires-mysql.html/.
