One of the most-anticipated tech IPOs of the year has been that of open-source database company MySQL. It seemed like they were ready to go public back in the beginning of the year. Now I am hearing chatter from hedge fund circles that the filing may be imminent. Last I checked, nothing has been filed with the SEC yet. Investors, including Benchmark, Index, IVP, Intel, and SAP, have put in more than $39 million to date.

MySQL claims a 25 percent share of the database market. It is unclear how compelling its economics are, but if its IPO does well (assuming it ever happens), that would open the door eventually for other open-source startups such as Openads (open-source ad server) and Automattic (which has built a business on top of the open-source blogging platform, WordPress), among others.