EU approves Oracle-Sun deal

In today's podcast: EU approves Oracle-Sun deal; Gartner raises IT spending outlook; and YouTube to rent movies.

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The European Commission on Thursday granted Oracle an unconditional approval to take over Sun Microsystems, following a controversial and drawn out examination of the deal. The deal still awaits approval in other jurisdictions, including Russia and China, but approval in the European Union is a big step forward for an acquisition hailed by some as transformational for the entire software industry, and by others as the killer of one of the most successful open source programs in the world, the MySQL database. Last November the Commission, the E.U.'s top antitrust regulator, expressed serious concerns about the planned deal because it would mean that Oracle, the world's largest proprietary database developer, would gain control of MySQL, an open source database division of Sun. However, Oracle swept those concerns aside in December after Oracle promised to safeguard MySQL for five years after the deal goes ahead

Gartner Thursday revised its outlook for worldwide IT spending this year, predicting the industry as a whole will see 4.6 percent growth to $3.4 trillion, up from its previous prediction of 3.3 percent growth. That figure contrasts with 2009, when spending fell 4.6 percent. Gartner revised its forecast upward to account for an expected weakening of the U.S. dollar. Spending is also expected to increase due to the increasing confidence of CEOs and CFOs as economic conditions gradually improve, said Richard Gordon, a research vice president with Gartner.

The US Department of Justice released a report detailing ways that the FBI illegally requested phone records from operators. Telecom companies so eager to help -- that a verbal request or even one written on a Post-it note was enough for operators to hand over customer phone records, according to the report. It found that in many cases the FBI issued written requests for telephone information, saying that it had secured the proper legal authority to make such requests, even though it didn’t. Some telecom company employees were so enthusiastic to help that they would generate the formal written requests for telephone records on behalf of the FBI. The report refers to three telecom providers that placed employees in FBI offices, but it does not name the operators.

YouTube is taking its first steps into the online movie-rental business, starting with a handful of films from the Sundance Film Festival that it will offer on its Web site starting this weekend.
YouTube will have five films to rent from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance festivals,. They'll be available from this Friday until Jan. 31, when the festival ends. It's a modest start for the Google-owned site, but it appears to be just the beginning. "In addition to these five films, a small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries, including health and education, will be made available in the weeks ahead," YouTube said.

And those are the top headlines from the IDG Global IT News Update brought to you by the IDG News Service. This is Marc Ferranti in the New York bureau. Join us again tomorrow for more news from the world of technology.