Oracle unprepared to address European Union's concern about Sun Microsystems

Oracle Corp denied a newspaper report that CEO Larry Ellison is backing down in a dispute with the European Union over the terms of the software company's acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc.

The New York Post reported on Friday that Oracle was prepared to address the EU's concerns about the future of Sun's MySQL database unit by offering to "quarantine" the division, running it as a separate business. The article cited two unnamed sources.

"The New York Post article is completely untrue," said Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger.

Shares of Sun had risen as much as 6% in morning Nasdaq trading following the New York Post report. The stock retreated to $8.48 by midmorning, still up 3%.

Hellinger declined to elaborate on the status of Oracle's efforts to win EU approval of its $7 billion acquisition of Sun.