MySQL AB Launches German Subsidiary

Nürtingen, Germany (21st May 2002) - MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular open source database, today announced a new German subsidiary, MySQL GmbH, located in Nürtingen, close to Stuttgart. MySQL GmbH is manned with a seasoned team headed by Mr. Thomas Schwartz, a long-time database industry player. MySQL GmbH serves the German-speaking European population by providing comprehensive MySQL services and support, including a German-language web site and product documentation.

"Last year in August we announced our strategy to scale up service in the German market. We have since launched a German web presence and published our reference manual in German. Setting up the local subsidiary allows us to deal directly with our growing number of customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland."said Mårten Mickos, MySQL AB CEO. He continued, "We are also extremely satisfied to appoint Thomas Schwartz as managing director with sales responsibility in the territory. This gives us a flying start for our German operations."

"I am both excited and honoured to get the opportunity to act as the country manager of a company with such a unique market opportunity," Schwartz stated. "From our new location in the heart of Europe we will serve software vendors, equipment manufacturers and corporations with embedded licenses, support and services."

"In the computer center of Karlsruhe (Germany) based Schlund + Partner AG more than 2,5 million domains are hosted. This is more than at every other place in Europe. Over 40.000 online databases of our customers are already using MySQL", says Kirsten Haynberg, press rep at Schlund + Partner.

MySQL GmbH is an important strategic move for MySQL AB. "Our partners told us they wanted a German web presence for MySQL, and they wanted German documentation," noted Kaj Arno", vice president of training, certification and documentation at MySQL "We now have developed the first version of our German web site www.mysql.de, and we have the entire MySQL reference manual translated into German," In late April, the German reference manual also hit the German bookstores, appearing in print by MITP Verlag.

The MySQL Database

The MySQL database maximizes speed and power in an extremely compact design, and it has full transactional capabilities to support business critical applications. From its inception, MySQL AB has passionately supported and promoted the open source philosophy that people should be able to freely read, redistribute, and modify the source code to promote rapid improvement and evolution of the software.

MySQL AB employs a dual-licensing structure that allows it to support its loyal user community with a sustainable business model. The MySQL database is available at no cost under the open source GPL license, and the company also provides commercial, non-GPL licenses to organizations that plan to re-sell a product containing MySQL code, or that otherwise don't want to be bound by the GPL. With the availability of the commercial license option, leading companies are now embedding the high-performance MySQL database into major software, hardware and other electronic devices.

About MySQL

MySQL AB develops, markets and supports the MySQL database server, the world 's most popular open source database. The MySQL database, which is free and available to everyone, has over three million users, including major corporations such as Yahoo!, Lucent Technologies, MP3.com (Vivendi Universal), Motorola, NASA, Silicon Graphics, HP, Xerox, Cisco and Agilent. It is available under the open-source GNU General Public License (GPL) or a non-GPL commercial license. MySQL is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden, but is a true virtual company, with employees throughout the world. For more information about MySQL, please go to www.mysql.com.

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MySQL is a registered trademark of MySQL AB in Sweden and is a trademark of MySQL AB in the USA and other countries. Other products mentioned are the trademarks of their respective corporations.