In response to the Trump administration’s threat of banning TikTok in the United States following an ongoing and growing dispute between China and the US, ByteDance has finally struck a deal with Oracle, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Although Washington’s condition to have TikTok continue its service is to sell its assets, it appears that the matter with Oracle doesn’t involve an outright sale. Essentially, making Oracle take on the helm of a “trusted tech partner” moving forward.
Rejected Offer
Meanwhile, one of the suitors of the bargain, Microsoft, was rejected from its proposition. Consequently, offsetting its chance of acquiring the company for its expansion.
Even before an agreement was signed between ByteDance and Oracle, Microsoft was among in the waiting list of potential business partners. The company has been hard at work in securing potential take over not just in the US, but also in other English-speaking countries.
Another report claims that the giant software company was contemplating in buying all of ByteDance’s global operations. However, it comes with a caveat that the notion being at its “preliminary” stages.
In a blog post, it announced its optimism in its proposal while also laying out prospects over future projects with TikTok.
“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.”
Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, even went so far as to meet up with President Trump and discuss plausible procurement of TikTok.
Executive Order
US President Trump previously threatened TikTok of prohibition if it does not meet the requirement of selling on or before September. A deadline which subsequently sees an extension to November 12, 2020.
Should the parent company failed to adhere to the demand, it will see itself in a position without future transactions in the United States.
Prior to giving into the demands of the White House, TikTok sued the Trump Administration for the lack of due process. China is also playing a pivotal role in the overall affair, too, with its power to counter any deal with ByteDance or the withholding of essential algorithm of the app if going on sale.
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