MySql on its way to IPO

The database makers of MySql are working on a stock exchange listing. The company posted a turnover of fifty million dollars last year and now considers itself big enough to make the step to the stock exchange.

The company behind the popular open source database is growing slowly but surely: in 2002 a turnover of 6.5 million dollars was booked, in 2005 already 34 million was brought in. Now that the magic limit of 50 million has been crossed, MySql Ab thinks. that it is justified to issue shares. “The plans are still on the drawing board, but we are making all the necessary preparations,” said foreman Marten Mickos. According to Mickos, the support contracts for the free database provide a solid cash flow: “Profitability is still not a primary goal, but we are not stoking our cash reserve either. We’re hovering around the break-even point.’ An average support contract costs a few thousand dollars, but for extensive support there are also packages of several tens of thousands of dollars in the range.

We would have waited as long as possible because a stock exchange listing entails a lot of problems, but the extra financial scope can provide new opportunities, such as takeovers. For example, in 2005 MySql would have liked the opportunity to buy InnoDb, which provided the transaction engine for MySql. However, Oracle ran off with that company, and although MySql can still use the Innobase software, a new transaction backend had to be arranged, which is now being developed in-house. The Swedes rejected an attempt by Oracle to also take over MySql last year.

Thanks to the capital from an IPO, MySql would also be able to compete better with Oracle and Microsoft. These two companies are the main competitors in the market for databases for online applications, where MySql wants to grow. “Oracle doesn’t have to worry about tackling their core business: we’re not going to get involved with large corporate databases, and they don’t really need the online database market,” Mickos said. ‘We try, of course, to prevent them from entering our premises.’ Other databases are not seen as competitors: the open source databases of PostgreSql, Ingres and EnterpriseDb rarely, if ever, compete for the same support contracts that MySql preys on, and IBM works well together. For example, Big Blue provides the MySQL database with its System i servers for medium-sized companies, and when Oracle bought Innobase, IBM lent MySql a helping hand in developing its own transaction engine.