Sun Microsystems Inc. announced that it is to acquire open-source software maker MySQL AB for $1 billion. MySQL is a very popular SQL database management system which has more than 10 million installations all over the world.

"Until now, no platform vendor has assembled all the core elements of a completely open source operating system for the Internet," Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said on a company blog.

"No company has been able to deliver a comprehensive alternative to the leading proprietary OS. With this acquisition, we will have done just that: positioned Sun at the center of the Web, as the definitive provider of high performance platforms for the Web economy."

Apparently, the deal is valued at $800 million in cash, plus options currently valued at $200 million.

"In the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to spend time with many folks over at Sun ranging from top execs to distinguished engineers and marketing managers," said MySQL  executive vice president, Zack Urlocker. "All of them talk the talk and walk the walk. They understand open source. They understand innovation. They understand communities. And they understand what MySQL brings to the table. They are a straightforward bunch; no game playing. And their commitment to open source is as deep as any I've seen."

The MySQL database is considered one of open source software's "big four" which make up "LAMP": Linux, the Apache Web server, MySQL and the PHP language. For example, Wikipedia runs on MediaWiki software, which is written in PHP and uses a MySQL database, as do many other site engines. Facebook, Google and Sina.com also use MySQL.

MySQL was first released in 1995. The project's source code is available under terms of the GNU General Public License, as well as business-oriented models.

Sun Microsystems announced in November that it would launch a Xen-based hypervisor for generating virtual machines called xVM.