Amid President Donald trump’s 15th September deadline to ban TikTok in the United States, ByteDance has announced its partnership with tech giant Oracle Corp. After rejecting Microsoft’s business bid, the Chinese company released a statement terming Oracle as its “technology partner”.
A deal between ByteDance Ltd and Oracle is likely to include a stake in a newly outlined TikTok business. However, the partnership will look more like a corporate restructuring than an outright sale, said one of the people close to the deal.
Oracle Corp. Partners with TikTok
Oracle could take a stake in a newly formed U.S. business while serving as TikTok’s U.S. technology partner and housing TikTok’s data in Oracle’s cloud servers. The terms of the deal however are still evolving, the official said.
Under the new deal, Oracle will also take up the management of user data and negotiate for a stake in the app’s American operations, an unidentified official told the news agency. The official added that ByteDance is hoping to evade a ban in the US while appeasing China.
Earlier, Microsoft was said to be the likely choice for ByteDance’s TikTok take over. However, the company released a statement after failing to reach a conclusion.
“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft,” Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said in a statement on Sunday. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests.”
Oracle, which shares a closer relationship with the U.S. president, emerged as a front runner with the backing of Sequoia Capital, a key ByteDance shareholder.
Despite that, ByteDance will need permission for the deal from the American and Chinese governments. It is unclear whether US President Donald Trump will approve the deal considering he wants the United States to have the controlling stakes in the TikTok business.
Last week, Trump in his statement refused to extend the September 15 deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s American assets. The President has been consistent in his allegations that the app posed to the United States security.
President Trump 90-day ultimatum
On August 6, President Trump issued executive orders banning any form of transactions with the TikTok within 45 days. He called them out to sell off its assets issuing a 90-day ultimatum in his second executive order.
The platform’s Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayer had resigned on August 26, merely two months after his appointment. Tiktok on the other hand has consistently denied these allegations and accused the President of furthering his ‘Anti-China rhetoric’ ahead of the presidential elections.
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