MySQL Growth on Fast Track with Major New Customers, Open Source Momentum

Sales on Pace to More than Double for Second Year in a Row; MySQL Database Downloaded Over 10 Million Times in 2003

MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular open source database, today announced that it has recently signed commercial licensing agreements with Active Voice, LLC, Avery Dennison, Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), NEC America, LeapFrog SchoolHouse, a division of LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: LF), Sabre Holdings and many other leading companies that are integrating the MySQL® database as the high performance data management system in their product offerings and enterprise applications. The growing list of MySQL independent software vendors (ISVs) and other commercial customers is putting MySQL AB sales on track to more than double for the second year in a row.

MySQL AB also announced that the MySQL database has been downloaded from the company's Web site more than 10 million times already this year, or an average of over 35,000 times a day, as its open source community and installed base continue to grow.

“Our sustained high growth in a relatively tepid market for technology overall is an indication that the commodity database sector - where performance, reliability and cost are most important - is increasing at a much faster rate than other parts of the DBMS market,” said Mårten Mickos, MySQL AB CEO. “MySQL's ‘dual licensing' business model, which combines the strengths of the open source community with support from commercial customers, contributes to our strong growth and company stability. We hope that our success will encourage many other open source companies to follow this model.

MySQL Offers Open Source and Commercial Licenses

MySQL AB's dual-licensing business model gives users the option of using the MySQL database for no cost under the free software/open source General Public License (GPL) or under a commercial license with warranties and indemnification from MySQL AB. With a commercial license, ISVs can integrate MySQL into their applications without opening their product's source code.

Companies across a wide range of market sectors have recently signed on as new MySQL commercial customers, including Active Voice, ADC Telecom, Avery Dennison, Caterpillar Inc., Critical Path, Epson, Gemstar-TV Guide, LAMAR Software, LeapFrog SchoolHouse, a division of LeapFrog Enterprises, NEC America, RLX Technologies, Sabre Holdings, Sendmail, Webyog and many others.

MySQL Multi-platform Support Key

The MySQL database runs on a wide range of operating systems and platforms, including all major Linux distributions, Microsoft Windows, HP-UX platforms, IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, Mac OS X, Novell NetWare and more. MySQL's multi-platform support has been an important benefit in the development and deployment of many ISV software applications.

LeapFrog SchoolHouse, a division of LeapFrog Enterprises and a leading developer of innovative technology-based educational products, recently signed an agreement to use MySQL in its LeapTrack System, an assessment and instruction system for schools. 

Glen Hamilton, the LeapFrog SchoolHouse director of engineering, commented, “MySQL is the ideal solution to meet our need for a scalable, cross-platform database engine.  It allows us to provide a reliable and inexpensive database for our LeapTrack Assessment and Instruction System that runs on a district server or on a classroom desktop computer. MySQL's cross-platform support, specifically for Mac OS X and Windows, greatly eased our development and support efforts.”

“MySQL's cross-platform support, along with its reliability, were determining factors in our selection of MySQL as the database for the Avery Dennison Photo ID system,” noted Michael Olenick, director, New Business Technology at Avery Dennison, a global leader in pressure-sensitive technology and innovative self-adhesive solutions for consumer products and label materials.

About MySQL AB

MySQL AB develops, markets and supports the MySQL database server, the world's most popular open source database. With an estimated 4 million installations and over 35,000 downloads per day, MySQL is quickly becoming the core of many high-volume, business-critical applications. Major corporations such as Yahoo!, Lucent Technologies, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, Motorola, NASA, HP and Xerox rely on the ultra-fast, highly reliable MySQL database. MySQL is available under the free software/open source GNU General Public License (GPL) or a non-GPL commercial license. For more information about MySQL, please go to www.mysql.com.

# # #

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