The authors of TikTok refused to sell the application to Microsoft. Oracle will become a partner of the company

There will be no deal between TikTok and Microsoft. China’s ByteDance has decided to enter into a partnership agreement with Oracle. It is not yet known whether the White House will accept such a turn of events. But it’s worth considering that Oracle management employs people with close ties to the presidential administration.

Last Sunday, Microsoft publicly announced that it would not buy TikTok.

“Today, ByteDance announced that it is not going to sell us the American part of TikTok,” the statement said. “We are confident that our proposal would be useful to TikTok users and at the same time would protect the interests of national security.”

Instead, ByteDance announced another American company, Oracle— as a “reliable technical partner of TikTok.” The terms of the partnership are still being discussed, but it is likely that Oracle will provide cloud services for TikTok data storage.

According to Bloomberg, the actions of the companies still need to be coordinated with the governments of China and the United States. This may cause difficulties, since we are not talking about a full-fledged sale of the business. The White House is able to consider the agreement contrary to national security requirements, and Beijing is able to put pressure on ByteDance, delay negotiations and prevent companies from completing the deal within the allowed time.

None of the parties to the agreement has yet commented on the situation.

It is also worth noting also that Oracle management is directly connected with the Trump administration. Safra Catz, the company’s CEO, was part of the president’s transition team. Co-founder Larry Ellison organized a fundraising event for the Trump campaign at one of his estates in California. Oracle’s board of directors also includes former White House Chief of Staff under President Clinton Leon Panetta.

By the way, earlier the US president has already spoken about the possible cooperation between ByteDance and Oracle. Then Trump called Ellison a “terrific guy” and supported Oracle’s proposal.

September 20 is the deadline for ByteDance on the situation with TikTok. Before this date, the Chinese company is obliged to announce the sale of the American part of the application, otherwise it will be banned in the United States. The deal itself must be concluded by November 12.

Also on the topic:

• The US wants to block TikTok and a number of other Chinese applicationsMicrosoft announced its intention to buy TikTok amid threats to ban the application in the United States
• China may prevent TikTok from being sold in the US due to new export rules
• Is there any news?