Me Sequel

Making daddy rich.

Get It Try It

My must be very happy today: a software product named after her just netted her daddy and his friends one billion dollars.

Micke Widenius from Helsinki called a computer shop at the end of the 1970s. He had a Microline printer that wouldn't work. Shop owner Allan Larsson sold Microline printers and was able to help.

A short while later Micke was in Stockholm visiting with Allan. He showed him some programs he'd written.

Allan traveled to Finland and set up a network for Micke and Micke began doing jobs for Allan. Then along came David Axmark who was moonlighting for his uncle at Stockholm Energi, one of Allan's clients.

Together the trio put together the idea and the company 'MySQL'. The 'My' was Micke's daughter.

Allan was a sort of mentor to Micke and David and also tried to run the business.

And in the autumn 2000 they were sitting around the Micke's kitchen table when Micke called his friend Mårten Mickos at the Technical Institute in Helsinki. They told him they needed a CEO and they thought he was the one. At first Mårten thought they were out of their minds and said no - for who needs databases?

But Mårten changed his mind and the rest as they say is history.

Cofounders and co-owners Micke, Allan, and David together own 17% of the corporate stock. How much they each earn now that Sun Microsystems have bought them lock stock and barrel for $1 billion they haven't had time to figure out.

Not that it threatens to change much - they're already doing well and have other projects to concentrate on.