American computer technology giant, Oracle Corporation has reportedly won the bidding for TikTok’s US operations after the Chinese app rejected Microsoft.
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.”
This comes after ByteDance disclosed that they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft.
According to a source, Microsoft, which was working with Walmart Inc, had initially been recognized as the most likely winner earlier in the process, until more firms including Oracle Corporation showed interest.
Microsoft earlier said in a statement that it was prepared to make changes aimed at protecting national security interests. 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.”
Back in August, President Donald Trump signed executive orders banning social media apps TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US in 45 days if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies.
In the executive order, which declares TikTok a “national emergency”, Mr Trump claims the app “automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users,” such as location data and browsing and search histories, which “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
For WeChat, which allows its users to transfer funds to each other, the order states it will ban financial transactions with Tencent, a Chinese based company.
The order read: “any transaction that is related to WeChat by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with Tencent Holdings Ltd. (a.k.a. Téngxùn Kòngg? Y?uxiàn G?ngs?), Shenzhen, China, or any subsidiary of that entity, as identified by the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) under section 1(c) of this order.”
