I have mixed feelings about this acquisition. First of all, I have to ask the same question the journalist asks. Was it really worth it? $1 billion?!? Wow. If I was in charge of Sun Microsystems I could probably think of a number of things worth more to my company than MySQL.

Sun Microsystems’ purchase of MySQL for $1 billion is not only the largest open-source deal yet, it’s almost bigger than all previous open-source deals combined, including RedHat’s $326 million buy of JBoss, Citrix’s $500 million purchase of XenSource and Yahoo’s $350 million acquisition of Zimbra.

But the deal raises a number of questions for Sun. Was that $1 billion well spent? What will Sun do with its new database? And will the purchase improve its standing in the enterprise?

While it will take several years to see the ultimate value of the acquisition, Sun may well have overpaid, Charles King, principal analyst with Pund-IT, said in a telephone interview. “To paraphrase Sen. Edward Dirkson, a billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking real money,” he quipped.

Don’t get me wrong, I love MySQL, and use it on a daily basis, so as long as they don’t muck with it too much I will be happy. But I can’t help but wonder what their true motive is. I know they are trying to expand into more of a software market, and this acquisition is definitely going to take time to prove it was really worth it.

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