Microsoft won’t buy TikTok; Oracle will become be the app’s ‘partner’ (Updated)
by John Callaham
- Microsoft has issued a statement saying it will not be acquiring the popular social networking app TikTok.
- Microsoft stated that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance was no longer interested in selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to the company.
- An unconfirmed report claims Oracle will become a “trusted tech partner” for TikTok.
Update: September 14, 2020: Oracle has confirmed in a very brief press statement that the company plans to become TikTok’s “trusted technology provider”. However, the deal must still be approved by the U.S. government. CNBC quotes U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin saying that the deal will be reviewed later this week. Mnuchin says the government wants to make sure TikTok’s code, and U.S. smartphones that use TikTok, are secure.
Original article: You can now count out Microsoft as a potential buyer of the popular social networking app TikTok. The company issued a brief statement today, saying that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance decided not to sell off its U.S. operations to Microsoft.
However, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Oracle will in fact be involved in TikTok in the U.S. The report claims the deal won’t be an outright sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations. Rather, Oracle will now become the app’s “trusted tech partner”. It’s hoped that this deal will be enough to convince the Trump administration to not ban U.S. businesses from working with TikTok. As of this writing, Oracle has yet to comment on any possible deal with ByteDance and TikTok.
In its statement this evening, Microsoft claims that its proposal to take over TikTok’s U.S. operations would have been a good one for its many users. However, it added that had a deal gone through, Microsoft would have made “significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation.”