Oracle Wins TikTok Bid

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Oracle has won the bidding for video-sharing app TikTok’s U.S. operations, reports The Wall Street Journal, less than 24 hours after Microsoft announced TikTok has rejected its bid to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations, which leaves Oracle as the leading bidder.

The Wall Street Journal states that Oracle will be referred to as TikTok’s “trusted tech partner” in the U.S., and reported that insiders say the deal will most likely not be an outright sale.

“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft,” Microsoft said via a statement on Sept. 13. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”

Retailer Walmart had also bid on TikTok’s U.S. operations, and released its own statement: “Walmart continues to have an interest in a TikTok investment and continues discussions with ByteDance leadership and other interested parties. We know that any approved deal must satisfy all regulatory and national security concerns.”

Last month, Kevin Mayer resigned as CEO of TikTok, following President Trump’s executive order threatening to ban TikTok in the U.S., if its U.S. operations, owned by Chinese-based parent company Bytedance, were not sold by mid-September. The ban threat was due to alleged national security concerns.

In return, TikTok sued the Trump administration, stating that the ban is “not based on a bona fide national emergency and authorizes the prohibition of activities that have not been found to pose ‘an unusual and extraordinary threat.'”

TikTok has become one of the hottest apps in the U.S. and other western countries, and was downloaded 315 million times during the first three months of 2020.

Jessica Nicholson
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