Microsoft loses bid, Oracle likely winner

San Francisco: Microsoft has revealed that its bid for TikTok operations in the US was rejected, leaving the other front-runner Oracle to be the likely winner even as an official announcement is awaited.

“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,” Microsoft said in a statement late on Sunday.

“To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combating disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement.A

“We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas,” it added.

After TikTok was banned in India in June, along with 58 other Chinese apps, the Donald Trump administration in the US increased pressure on the ByteDance-owned platform to sell its US operations by mid-September or face a ban.