Letter from the CEO

Marten Mickos

Dear MySQL users and customers,

The first half of 2003 has seen a number of significant advances for MySQL. Version 4 is out in production, we have signed a strategic partnership with SAP (see our previous newsletter), and we have brought in some of the best venture capital investors in the software industry. Behind the scenes, we have increased our staffing. Also, our sales continue to grow much faster than the market in general. We now stand stronger than ever before to serve our user base and develop the features and services you need. At our users conference in San Jose, California in April we demonstrated what we have done on stored procedures, and other key enhancements are under way. New training courses have been developed, and we now have a global certification program.

"So, what will you do with all that money?" is a question we've heard lately. There are three primary areas to which we are directing the investment.

First, we are fortifying the MySQL software development group by recruiting some of the world's best database experts and some of the most promising young programmers. This will allow us to speed up product development while staying loyal to our philosophy of high-performance, reliable and easy-to-use software.

Second, we are building out our professional services organization. Larger and larger organizations are deciding to build their IT infrastructure on open source solutions. They have come to us and asked for not only software, but services as well. We are also working with some of the major independent software vendors (ISVs) on new offerings.

Third, MySQL is strengthening its worldwide sales organization. Every day, we are contacted by large and small companies that are eager to run their systems on our database. The task of the MySQL sales team is to make sure these customers get prompt, reliable and convenient service from us.

All in all, we are working hard to serve the needs of a hungry market. What started in the '90s as an open source project is now becoming a mainstream solution for corporations, governments and non- commercial entities. The strong acceptance of MySQL in the corporate world is the best possible accolade to the open source movement.

At MySQL, we feel we have been able to strike a functioning balance between free software and a commercial operation. We have all our software available completely under the free GPL license, while at the same time, we serve our commercial customers with certified, warranted software. And it's technically the same product!

We are working diligently to fulfill our mission of "making superior database management available and affordable to all," and you, our users and customers, are a vital part of that crusade.

Warm summer greetings,

Marten Mickos
CEO