The European Union's executive on Thursday cleared the takeover by US software firm Oracle of Sun Microsystems, DPA reported.
The European Commission decided that the deal would not limit competition in Europe, a statement released in Brussels said.
"I am now satisfied that competition and innovation will be preserved on all the markets concerned. Oracle's acquisition of Sun has the potential to revitalise important assets and create new and innovative products," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.
The commission has been investigating the proposed deal since September amidst concerns that the tie-up would give the planned company unfair control over the market for database software.
That was because Sun in 2008 bought the world's leading open-source database, MySQL. At that time, 85 per cent of the value of the world's patented database market was in the hands of just three companies: Oracle, Microsoft and IBM.
"The commission's in-depth investigation ... assessed whether the acquisition of the world's leading open-source database MySQL by Oracle, the leading proprietary database vendor, would lead to a significant impediment of effective competition," the statement said.
But it concluded that those fears were not in fact justified, and that there was enough competition on the database market to give consumers a choice even if the deal went ahead.
The commission is responsible for enforcing the EU's strict laws on fair competition.