Oracle announced today that it had received regulatory approval from the European Commission for its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Oracle said it expects unconditional approval from China and Russia and intends to close the transaction shortly.

Oracle had originally announced in April 2009 that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Sun Microsystems, a move that came on the heels of a breakdown of a proposed acquisition by IBM. 

Sun's stockholders approved the transaction on July 16, 2009. Later in the summer, the U.S. Department of Justice also approved the proposed acquisition and terminated the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The purchase has been held up however by the European Commission's concerns that the Oracle's ownership of the MySQL open source database, through the Sun acquisition, would have an adverse effect on competition.

Oracle plans to host a live event for customers, partners, press and analysts on January 27 at its headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif. Details are available here.