As the clock ticks and the September 3 deadline nears, speculation is rising that the European Commission may throw a spanner into the Oracle-Sun merger and delay things another four months.

Reuters said late Tuesday that EC regulators were fretting over the competitive implications of Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL and debating whether to open a full-scale investigation.

If the EC decides to probe, the acquisition could get a pass, a fail or get loaded down with conditions, dragging out any resolution until late December, early January.

Further delays will give IBM and HP even more time than they’ve already had to rustle Sun’s remaining hardware customers. They’ve been chasing them since Oracle announced its intentions to buy Sun in April.