The multination software company Oracle is looking to compete with Microsoft in the bid for popular Chinese-owned short video recording app, TikTok. It is unclear how Oracle’s interest in acquiring TikTok will impact Microsoft’s bid. The app’s operations in the United States are under the federal government’s scrutiny over concerns of protection of American user’s data and privacy.
According to the Financial Times, Microsoft has been looking to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations for quite some now and the tech giant expected that negotiations with the app’s parent company, ByteDance, would be wrapped up by mid-September. However, it seems that the deal might not be finalized in the expected time frame.
Oracle is an American multinational computer technology corporation. Based in California, the company retails own and third-party database software and technology, enterprise software products, and cloud engineered systems.
Oracle Enters the Race to Acquire TikTok
As per the report, Oracle has already held preliminary talks with ByteDance to settle the terms of a sale. Recently expressed interest from Oracle in the acquisition of the app poses a probable threat to Microsoft’s bid which is currently considered as the frontrunner. Microsoft has officially provided a formal offer to ByteDance that would involve the takeover of TikTok’s operations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
It is possible that Oracle will be able to out-bid Microsoft. The company has 2 advantages over the leading tech giant. Firstly, according to the report, Oracle is working with a group of U.S. investors that already owns a stake in ByteDance- including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital-to finalize a deal to acquire the app’s operations in the United States. Secondly, President Trump may want to support Oracle’s bid:
“Mr Ellison, one of the world’s richest people, is one of the few people in Silicon Valley who has openly supported Mr Trump. In February, the 76-year-old billionaire entrepreneur held a fundraiser for the US president at his estate in Coachella Valley, California.”
Oracle is not the first company that has been looking to compete with Microsoft’s bid. Earlier in the month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter held preliminary talks about a possible merger with ByteDance, but it is unlikely that such a merger could take place keeping Twitter’s market value in mind.
President Trump’s New Executive Order
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Friday giving TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, 90 days to divest TikTok’s operations in the United States. The Trump administration has been pressuring the Chinese social media company to sell the video-clip sharing platform to a U.S company for weeks now. President Trump said that “there is credible evidence” leading him to believe ByteDance “might take action that threatens to weaken the national security of the United States.”
The latest executive order also demands ByteDace to destroy all data of its American users and to report to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States once all the data has been destroyed. It is still unclear if Larry Ellison’s support of President Trump could give the tech giant a competitive edge in the bid for TikTok.
