Oracle has beaten Mircosoft in the race to take over TikTok’s US business, confirming that they are part of the proposal sent to the US Treasury over the weekend.
Rumors started swirling late on Sunday that Oracle were the preferred bidder and shortly after came confirmation from assumed frontrunners Microsoft that their monster $30 billion TikTok bid had been turned down.
Microsoft confirmed in their Sunday statement that TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, had “let [them] know… they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft.” The TikTok owners have not yet publicly commented.
Less than 12 hours later, Oracle have confirmed that they were successful in their attempts, and will be taking over the US operations of TikTok once the deal has been reviewed by the US government. In a press release, Oracle stated that the “confirm Secretary Mnuchin’s statement that it is part of the proposal submitted by ByteDance over the weekend, in which Oracle will serve as the trusted technology provider.”
The Trump administration has been threatening to ban TikTok by the middle of September if the application’s US business was not sold. This blanket order was allegedly due to Chinese ownership of the viral social media platform.
The US has been the main focus of the massive tech sale, but the acquisition will also apply to all ongoing TikTok operations in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
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TikTok currently boasts over 100 million users in the US, including rising internet celebrities like Addison Rae, the D’Amelio sisters Charli and Dixie, and plenty more.
ByteDance tipping Oracle as its US successor may come as a shock to some, as many had Microsoft and Walmart’s combined $30 billion takeover plans as a frontrunner in the ongoing social media bidding war. Microsoft also believed they were in pole-position, right up to Sep. 13.
Secretary Mnuchin told CNBC that the US government intends to review the deal this week, and will be having discussions with Oracle and their technical teams over the next few days to ensure “Americans’ data is secure.”
When this deal will be officially completed remains to be seen, but it appears that all parties are keen to finish the process, hopefully meaning their will be no disruption to the app and the community who uses it.
