Microsoft announced that it no longer claims to buy part of TikTok's business in the United States. The Chinese conglomerate ByteDance, which owns TikTok, rejected the offer from the Redmond giant. According to The Wall Street Journal, the owner of TikTok chose to partner with Oracle instead of Microsoft.
At the end of July, US President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the US. It became known about Microsoft's plans to buy the American share of TikTok and operating structures in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
On August 6, Trump issued an executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to place TikTok under the control of a US company, while also demanding a significant amount of money from the deal. Trump set the deadline for the sale of the American part of the platform or blocking TikTok. China said it would not allow sales, and TikTok filed a lawsuit to challenge Donald Trump's decision. The potential buyers of TikTok were Microsoft and Oracle.
Microsoft was negotiating with ByteDance to purchase the entire TikTok business, but China stated it would not allow such a deal.
"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. To do this, we 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. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas," read Microsoft's statement regarding TikTok.
Kay Lee
ByteDance does not disclose the reasons for the refusal. The deal with Oracle, according to WSJ, implies the continuation of TikTok's operations in the United States under Oracle's tutelage without the need to sell the business. ByteDance will remain the owner of TikTok, but the actual provider of TikTok services in the United States will be Oracle, which uses its servers to operate the TikTok's service and store user data. This deal meets the requirements of the United States and China. But Trump insisted on the sale and a substantial commission from the deal in favor of the US Treasury.
