The US tech giant Microsoft, on Sunday, said that its offer of buying out TikTok’s US operations was rejected which leaves Oracle as the sole runner in the bidding race ahead of a looming deadline for the Chinese-owned short video platform to sell or shut down its operations in the United State of America.
Both, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported that Oracle had won the bidding war, citing people familiar with this deal, however, the company did now confirm the matter to the AFP.
The nid from Oracle would next need the approval from the White House and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, said the Journal, with both the companies under the belief that they would meed the US data security concerns.
Also Read: Oracle Shows Interest In Taking Over TikTok’s US Operations after Microsoft And Twitter
TikTok has been at the centre of the diplomatic war between the Washington and Beijing as the US President Donal Trump has given the Americans a deadline to stop their business activities with ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok. This is the sole reason why the Chinese firm is selling the app to a US company.
At the beginning of August, Microsoft indicated that it was interested in acquiring TikTok’s US operations but on Sunday the firm said that their bid was rejected by the Chinese firm.
In a statement, the tech giant said, “ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft,”.
It added, “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests,”.
Earlier in August itself, Donald Trump issued an executive order which stated that if TikTok does not reach a purchase agreement by the 20th of September, the platform will have to close its operations in the US.
US President Trump claimed that TikTok could be used by China to track locations of federal employees and build dossiers on people for blackmail and event force them to conduct corporate espionage.
Later that same month, China’s commerce ministry published new rules which made it even more difficult for ByteDance to sell TikTok to a US entity by adding the “civilian use” to the list of technologies which are restricted for export.
ByteDance had vowed to “strictly abide” by new export rules.
In a note, Daniel Ives, Wedbush analyst said, “We believe Microsoft would only buy TikTok WITH its core algorithm which the Chinese government and ByteDance was not willing to budge,”.
The analyst added, “Given the need now to get a green light from Beijing after its export rules were changed a few weeks ago, TikTok’s days in the US likely are numbered with a shutdown now the next step,”.
TikTok was downloaded more than 175 million (17.5 crore) in the United States and is used by as many as a billion (100 crore) people all around the globe to make quirky and shot videos via their devices.
TikTok has repeatedly denied of sharing user data with the Chinese government. Microsoft had said that it would have “made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation.”
