Oracle Corp. has been selected as the winning bidder for TikTok’s U.S. operations, the Wall Street Journal reported, after Microsoft said its bid was rejected by parent company ByteDance Ltd.
Oracle will be announced as TikTok’s “trusted tech partner” in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unidentified source. The eventual deal won’t be structured as an outright sale. It’s important to note that Oracle didn’t beat out Microsoft to buy TikTok. As announced, “trusted tech partner” isn’t the same as buying anything.
In a posted statement, Microsoft announced “ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests.”
Microsoft, which was working with Walmart Inc., had been seen as the more likely winner earlier in the process, but its talks have cooled, a person with knowledge of the matter said earlier today. Microsoft hadn’t been asked to make revisions to its initial offer in the face of recent signs of opposition to a deal from Chinese government officials, the person added. That’s given competitor Oracle Corp. an upper hand in the negotiations.
Microsoft’s blog post from Sunday:
ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. 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.
US investors in ByteDance — including big firms like Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic — see Oracle’s bid as their best bet to get a piece of the action. Oracle, the US-based enterprise tech giant, emerged just last week as an interested buyer ahead of the Trump administration’s September deadline of a nationwide TikTok ban.
Despite Microsoft’s ties with ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming, Oracle has the advantage of strong political connections to President Donald Trump. Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison has publicly voiced his support for Trump, and held a fundraiser for the president at his home earlier this year. The company’s CEO, Safra Catz, joined Trump’s White House transition team in 2016.
I’m quite sure we will hear much more about this liaison in the coming weeks. Stay Tuned!
