Neelie Kroes, the commission’s hard-nosed Competition Commissioner for the last five years, will be assigned to a new job when her term in the antitrust office expires in January. The EC, which is the law enforcement body of the European Union, is due to make a decision on whether to sanction Oracle’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun on Jan. 27, 2010, so Oracle can continue to do business in Europe.
– By the time a decision is made about whether a combined Oracle and Sun
Microsystems corporation can do business in the 27 European Union countries, a
new official will be serving as the chief antitrust watchdog at the European
Commission.

The EC said Nov. 30 that Neelie Kroes, the commission’s…