TikTok to team up with Oracle as Microsoft loses acquisition race

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) said it has lost out in the race to buy TikTok, with reports that Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) has been chosen by the social media app’s Chinese parent company. 

Instead of selling TikTok’s US operations, Beijing-based ByteDance has selected Oracle as its US-based business partner.

Oracle will be “trusted tech partner” of the app in the US and may buy a large stake in the dance-focused app, according to reports stateside.

Either way, the deal is expected to have to be signed off by the White House after President Trump said the app poses a threat to national security and issued an executive order calling for TikTok to sell its US operations or else it would be blocked in the country.  

Confirmation of the Oracle deal has not yet been confirmed by either the US or Chinese companies, nor in Washington. 

Microsoft issued a statement overnight, saying, “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.”

The trillion-dollar company confirmed in August that it was in talks to acquire TikTok’s businesses in US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with reports from the FT suggesting it could snaffle the entire TikTok’s operation.

In Sunday’s statement, Microsoft referenced the “significant changes” it had proposed last month, notably adding security, privacy, and digital safety protections to Tiktok’s service, adding: “We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”

Story by ProactiveInvestors