Oracle has beaten Microsoft to win the bid for TikTok’s US operations, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.(opens in a new tab), The B2B database software company isn’t exactly the first name you think of when you think “meme-filled video sharing app for teens,” but we’re all stretching ourselves a little more these days. .
Microsoft announced that ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, declined its offer to buy the popular app in a very short, slightly sassy blog post(opens in a new tab) on Sunday.
,[W]We will have made significant changes to ensure that the service meets the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety and combating misinformation, and we clarified these principles in our August statement,” Microsoft said. wrote. “We look forward to seeing how the service develops in these important areas.”
That left Oracle as the only interested party — or at least the only one that’s publicly known. Though nothing has been officially announced yet, sources told the two wall street journal and The Washington Post(opens in a new tab) Oracle has won the bid to buy TikTok, although the deal probably won’t be an outright sale. Rather, Oracle will be TikTok’s “trusted tech partner” in the US
This difference may have been a factor in ByteDance’s alleged acceptance of Oracle’s offer. After all, this whole sale hasn’t exactly been voluntary.
China willing to let TikTok die before allowing Trump to force US takeover
President Donald Trump has for months been accusing TikTok of sharing users’ data with the Chinese government, issuing an executive order in August seeking ByteDance to sell the app’s US operations. The deadline for this force sale is (probably) September 20th.
As a side note, the top court of the European Union recently blocked the transfer of people’s personal data to the US, citing concerns about US government surveillance.(opens in a new tab) European citizens. The world is just a giant circle pointing at Spider-Man.
Mashable has contacted TikTok and Oracle for comment.
Update: September 14, 2020, 4:42 PM AEST State-controlled news organization China Global Television Network(opens in a new tab) Its own sources have since confirmed that TikTok will not be sold to Microsoft – but it won’t sell to Oracle either. Still, the report doesn’t necessarily rule out a partnership arrangement as opposed to a direct sale, as detailed by The Wall Street Journal’s source.
