Sun to cut 3,000 jobs amid probe

Sun has suffered long-running financial problems

Sun Microsystems has said it will cut 3,000 jobs in the next year as it awaits the verdict of an EU probe into a takeover by Oracle Corp.

They are the latest in a series of cuts to be made by the firm, which has suffered prolonged financial woes.

Business software firm Oracle has proposed a $7.4bn takeover of computer hardware and software maker Sun.

The US justice department has given its approval to the deal, agreed in April, but the EU is still investigating.

Last month Oracle said that Sun was losing $100m (£61m) every month as it waited for the probe.

IBM challenge

The EU is concerned that the deal, if approved, could breach competition rules, leading to higher prices and less choice for customers.

It is concerned mainly about Oracle having control over Sun's MySQL database business.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has said the EU is obliged to investigate "when the world's biggest proprietary database company proposes to take over the world's leading open-source database company".

But Oracle maintains that there is no conflict of interest and says it will not sell off MySQL to get the deal approved.

The EU has said it will make its final decision by 19 January 2010.

Oracle is looking to strengthen its position against rival IBM, which abandoned its own attempts to buy Sun earlier this year.