Oracle has beat out Microsoft to win the bid for TikTok's U.S. operations, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The B2B database software company isn't exactly the first name you think of when you think "meme-filled video sharing app for teens," but we're all extending ourselves a bit more these days.
Microsoft announced that TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance rejected its proposal to buy the popular app in a very brief, slightly sassy blog post on Sunday.
"[W]e would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement," wrote Microsoft. "We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas."
This left Oracle as the only interested party remaining — or at least the only one that's publicly known. While nothing has been officially announced yet, sources told both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post that Oracle has won the bid to purchase TikTok, though the deal probably won't be a straight up sale. Rather, Oracle will be TikTok's "trusted tech partner" in the U.S.
This distinction may have been a factor in ByteDance's reported acceptance of Oracle's proposal. After all, this whole sale hasn't exactly been voluntary.
SEE ALSO:China willing to let TikTok die before allowing Trump to force a U.S. acquisitionPresident Donald Trump has been accusing TikTok of sharing users' data with the Chinese government for months now, issuing an executive order in August to demand ByteDance sell the app's U.S. operations. The deadline for this forced sale is (probably) September 20.
As a side note, the EU's top court recently restricted the transfer of people's personal data to the U.S., citing concerns about American government surveillance of European citizens. The world is just one giant circle of Spider-Men pointing.
Mashable has contacted TikTok and Oracle for comment.
UPDATE: Sept. 14, 2020, 4:42 p.m. AEST State-controlled news organisation China Global Television Network has since reported its own sources confirmed TikTok won't be sold to Microsoft — but it won't sell to Oracle either. Even so, this report this doesn't necessarily preclude a partnership arrangement as opposed to a straightforward sale, as detailed by the Wall Street Journal's source.
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