American computer technology giant Oracle Corporation has been selected as the winning bidder for TikTok’s US operations, after Microsoft said that its bid was rejected by the parent company, ByteDance Ltd.
This is coming a week before President Donald Trump’s promised date for following through with a plan to ban the Chinese-owned app in the United States.
According to Bloomberg, a Wall Street Journal reported that Oracle would be announced as TikTok’s trusted tech partner in the United States. The Journal also added that the eventual deal would not be structured as an outright sale.
A statement from Redmond reads, “ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft.”
Microsoft had, in a statement, said that they were confident that their proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while also protecting national security interests. This is coming after ByteDance had disclosed that they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. However, ByteDance will need approval for the deal from the United States and China.
(READ MORE: ByteDance, Tiktok’s parent company, now worth over $100 billion)
According to a source, Microsoft, which was working with Walmart Inc, had initially been recognized as the most likely winner earlier in the process, but this later cooled as more firms showed interest. ByteDance did not ask Microsoft for a revision of its initial offer in the face of recent signs of opposition to a deal from Chinese government officials. This must have given the competitor, Oracle Corporation, an upper hand in the negotiations.
Microsoft, in its statement, said that it was prepared to make changes aimed at addressing US national security concerns. It said, “To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combating disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”
It can be recalled that the Trump administration had threatened to ban TikTok by mid-September, and ordered ByteDance to sell its US operations following national security concerns due to its Chinese ownership.
TikTok, however, has denied the national security claim and is suing to stop the administration from the threatened ban.
Not bid to acquire,but to partner.