Microsoft bid rejected by TikTok

Microsoft bid rejected by TikTok as Trump's friends at Oracle look like favourites

Oracle looking most likely as new TikTok owners

MICROSOFT bid rejected by TikTok.
Microsoft has announced that its offer to buy the US operations of popular video-sharing app TikTok has been rejected, leaving the path clear for Oracle to make a last-minute bid.

US President Donald Trump gave September 15, as the deadline for the Chinese-owned app to sell up or shut down, as the Trump administration claims TikTok and other Chinese apps are national security threats. As is common with Trump, there is some confusion over the deadline. President Trump’s executive order gave a deadline of September 20. But the US President has repeatedly said the deadline is September 15.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Oracle, which sells database technology and Cloud systems to businesses, had already won the bidding war.
Earlier reports had said Oracle was seriously considering buying TikTok’s businesses in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand with investment firms, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital.
On Sunday Microsoft announced that “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.”
“We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas,” its statement added.
This paves the way for Oracle, who president Trump said would be “a great company” to take over TikTok’s US operations last month. Oracle’s chairman Larry Ellison is a supporter of President Trump and held a fundraising event for him in February.
Earlier this month President Trump said the government should get a “substantial portion” of the sale price of TikTok’s US unit if an American firm buys it.
President Trump ordered TikTok’s owner ByteDance to sell its US business within 90 days or face being shut down. The forced sale of TikTok’s US business is part of a wider crackdown on Chinese technology firms in America.
President Trump has said apps such as TikTok, WeChat and equipment maker Huawei pose a national security threat because data collected about users can be shared with the Chinese government. Chinese firms deny this claim.
TikTok has become so popular because it has highly-advanced algorithms that predict what users want to watch.
These highly-valued algorithms will not be sold or transferred according to a report in the South China Morning Post.
It’s unclear what will happen to the popular video-sharing app which has around 100m active users in the US.
Neither Microsoft nor Oracle are seen as the most obvious suitors for TikTok, which has a predominantly young audience who share short-form lip-synching videos.
Any deal will still need approval from a number of interested parties including the US and Chinese governments, ByteDance and investors.
So, it seems its all still up in the air over what is happening, but one thing is for sure, Microsoft will not be the new owners of TikTok. If Oracle will that remains to be seen and on what date? Well, that will depend on Trump.

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Written by

Charlie Loran

Manchester born mummy with a two year old diva (2020), living on the Costa del Sol for just short of a decade.
Former chef and restaurateur, holistic health fanatic and lover of long words.

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