TikTok Rejects Microsoft, Chooses Oracle as U.S. Technology Partner

The firm is trying to reverse a ban issued by President Donald Trump.

Video app TikTok chose Oracle over Microsoft to be its U.S. technology partner, reported The Washington Post on Monday. Anonymous sources told the daily newsletter that the app recently put forward a proposal to the U.S. government.

RELATED: TIKTOK PULLS OUT OF HONG KONG, MIGHT GET BLOCKED IN THE US 

This plan would allow the app's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to retain ownership but outsource cloud management of the data. The proposal, according to the sources, may also indicate that ByteDance will move its headquarters outside of China as not to be subjected to Chinese regulations that require firms to share their data with the government. 

The anonymous sources also indicated that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross were open to hearing the new offer. However, a former U.S. official said that while the new approach might address some of the security issues, “it’s well short of a U.S. company taking over the asset and the algorithm, and politically, it would be a massive climb-down from what the President said he was going to accomplish with this.”

Oracle has close bonds with President Donald Trump

One thing for sure is that if one firm can convince President Donald Trump to give TikTok a chance, it is Oracle. The firm has close ties to the president.

Due to an issue ordered by Trump, the app is set to be banned in the U.S. by September 20. Clearly TikTok is working hard to reverse that.

The firm has repeatedly said it is not a national security threat and it shares no information with the Chinese government. These statements, however, seem to have fallen on deaf ears so far. Could Oracle change that?

Microsoft's bid was rejected

In the meantime, Microsoft released a statement indicating that its offer to partner with the app was rejected.

"ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft. We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests," said the post.