Sources tell FOX Business’ Charlie Gasparino TikTok continues to negotiate with Microsoft, who may also be interested in buying TikTok UK, but people at the company say other potential buyers remain.
Oracle Corp. has expressed interest in purchasing the popular Chinese social video app TikTok, a new report said Tuesday.
According to the Financial Times, Oracle chairman and co-founder Larry Ellison’s software giant has held preliminary talks with ByteDance’s parent company TikTok, which has hired frontrunner Microsoft Corp. has a potential competitor in its bid for the more than 800 million user app.
TIKTOK launches information board, twitter account to set up ‘the registry’ about business rumors, malformation
Oracle has reportedly partnered with venture capital firms such as General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital – which already have an interest in ByteDance – and is “seriously considering” acquiring the app’s operations in the United States, Canada , Australia and New Zealand, according to the report.
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Twitter Inc. also ByteDance had approached to express interest in TikTok’s US-based operations. However, it was said that they were “concerned” about their financial capacity for the deal.
In addition, the Financial Times noted on Monday that Microsoft had also seriously considered a takeover of TikTok’s global operations past the peoples it had marked earlier in the month.
Microsoft is apparently particularly interested in buying TikTok operations in Europe and India, where it was recently banned by the Indian government amid a border uprising with China.
However, according to the Times, ByteDance is opposed to selling further assets outside of those in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
On Friday, President Trump issued an executive order instructing ByteDance to sell its business in the U.S. company within 90 days, relieving pressure on the Chinese company.
Billionaire Ellison is remarkably one of the few American tech executives who has publicly supported the president’s administration.
A deal to buy TikTok across regional lines would be unusual.
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While ByteDance has not publicly announced an award for its sales, TikTok led the success that made the company the world’s most valuable start in 2018.
In an attempt to take rumors about the company, TikTok on Monday unveiled a new information button and Twitter account that they hope will “shine a light on the facts and set the record immediately” after the Trump administration accused the company of users to provide data to the Chinese government.
