TikTok and Oracle will become business partners in the United States — a deal meant to satisfy the Trump administration’s national security concerns, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Talk of a sale began as President Donald Trump issued executive orders last month seeking to ban TikTok and requiring that its US operations be spun off from its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance.
The exact nature of the agreement between TikTok and Oracle remains unclear, but it was not described as an outright sale. The news about Oracle came just after Microsoft announced that it will not buy TikTok’s US operations from its ByteDance.
“We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests,” Microsoft (MSFT) said in a blog post. “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.”
ByteDance has not responded to a request for comment. TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump and other US politicians have said the app poses a threat to national security. TikTok has denied the allegation and sued the Trump administration over one of the orders, calling it “heavily politicized.”
Multiple analysts had described Microsoft’s pursuit of TikTok as a potential “coup” for the Washington state-based firm — an opportunity to scoop up one of the world’s fastest growing social media platforms at a time when TikTok may be desperate to make a deal.
A deal could have also included an American retail giant: Walmart (WMT) was also participating in negotiations with Microsoft over a potential deal. The retailer had said it was interested in how TikTok could have bolstered its access to consumers.
CNN