Sun have today announced their plans to acquire MySQL, the company behind the popular MySQL database server. This gives Sun a large stake in the database market. MySQL already has a range of high-profile clients, with some household names including Facebook, Yahoo!, BBC and Nokia.

MySQL is an Open Source and Free Software database, and members of the community will be somewhat reassured by Sun's background. They are the largest contributors of open source code, well known for Open Office and more recently for releasing Java under the GNU GPL. The MySQL VP of Community wrote a blog post to reassure the community about the acquisition.

With the deal totaling a $1 Billion, it's a clear indicator of the financial potential of companies founded on the principles of free and open source software. And who knows, many of the clients that first started out small using MySQL because it was freely available and grew up to become clients of the MySQL company may well not have done so if they'd had to pay out for it in the first place.