Early September this year, the United States President Donald Trump gave a deadline for the Chinese-owned app to sell or shut down. Microsoft counted themselves lucky among the two fighting duos. However, their offer to buy the popular video-sharing app TikTok has been thwarted, giving a chance to the oracles to make a last-minute bid.
Trump’s move is based on the fact that TikTok and other Chinese apps impose security threats to the US nationals.
Oracle and Microsoft led the race to buy TikTok from ByteDance, a Chinese firm, after Donald Trump threats to burn the application.
Reuters reported that the Oracle, a company that sells cloud systems and database technology to other businesses, had won the bid.
To the Oracles, TikTok was an excellent investment opportunity that they never wanted to let go of. Earlier reports highlighted Oracle’s interest in buying TikTok businesses in Canada, Australia, the United States, and New Zealand, with investment firms not limited to Sequoia Capital.
Interestingly, according to the TikTok spokesperson, the firm is not giving any comments on either the Microsft development or the Oracle speculation.
Microsoft Painful Rejection in its words
Microsoft announced on Sunday that, “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.”
“We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas,” Microsoft added.
This gives Oracle, who would be “a great company,” according to Trump, to take over the app operations in the US, another chance to shoot its shot.
Larry Ellison, Oracle’s chairman, is a big supporter of Mr. Donald Trump. He even held a fundraising event for him this year, February.
According to US President Donald Trump, the US government should get a more significant portion of the sale price of the Chinese application US unit if an American firm buys it.
The president’s executive order gave the Chinese firm a deadline of 20 September. However, the president has said several times that the deadline is on 15 September. This has dramatically created a lot of confusion concerning the exact date.
Why is all the Hullabaloo about?
The US president ordered ByteDance to sell its US operations within 90 days, or it will be shut down. This is part of the bigger picture of the crackdown on Chinese technology firms in the United States.
Mr. Trump claims that apps such as WeChat, TikTok pose a national security threat. This is because the data collected can be shared with the Chinese government-a claim that Chinese firms do not agree with.
The technology wars continue Huawei faces a ban on 15 September. This will hugely affect it, non-American suppliers. The non-American suppliers will have to stop shipping to Huawei if their products contain American technology. Otherwise, to supply the Chinese firm, they will have to apply for a license to the US Commerce Department.
What a forced sale means to TikTok Users
What do you think will happen to the video-sharing application with over 100m active users in the states?
Both Microsoft and Oracle are not the apparent suitors for TikTok.
The road to either company owning the lip-synching application is longer than one might think. Any deal on the table is subjected to approval from several parties, including the Chinese government, the United States, investors, and the ByteDnace (Owner of the popular lip-synching application).
ByteDnace were not only all ears but also took action from the ban imposed by the US president. They sued the American government in August in response to Trump’s Executive Order.
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