Oracle has entered the race to get TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned short video app that President Donald Trump has promised to shut down unless it is taken over by a U.S. company by mid-November, people have been informed about the say.
The tech company co-founded by Larry Ellison had held preliminary talks with TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, and was seriously considering buying the app’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, people said.
Oracle worked with a group of U.S. investors who already have an interest in ByteDance, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, the people added.
Microsoft has been the leading candidate to buy TikTok, since it initially said publicly that it had held discussions to explore a acquisition of companies from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Microsoft has also seriously considered a bid to take over TikTok’s global operations outside the countries it wrote this month, people have been informed about the company’s thinking. The company Redmond, in Washington, is particularly interested in buying TikTok in Europe and India, where the video app has been banned by Narendra Modi, Indian Prime Minister.
ByteDance is against selling any assets other than those in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, said a person close to the company.
The entry of Oracle into the race provided ByteDance a credible alternative to Microsoft’s offering, said one person with immediate knowledge of the matter.
Twitter had also held early-stage talks with TikTok, but there were serious concerns about the U.S. social media group’s ability to fund the deal, people informed about the matter.
Oracle’s move comes after Mr Trump last week instructed ByteDance to divide TikTok’s US operations within 90 days, following a recommendation from the US Foreign Investment Commission, a government panel that converts foreign transactions.
Mr Trump’s mandate said the US had “credible evidence” that ByteDance was using TikTok, which reached 2 billion downloads worldwide in 2020, to break US security. ByteDance has denied all allegations of incorrect data sharing several times. The US has been waging a trade war with China since Mr. Trump took office.
Mr. Ellison, one of the richest people in the world, 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 U.S. president on his estate in Coachella Valley, California.
It is unclear whether the White House supports Oracle’s approach more than Microsoft’s.
Each deal would have to deal with a long list of challenges, including separating TikTok’s back-end technology from ByteDance. It is also unclear how much TikTok’s US as global operations would raise in a sale.
Oracle could not be immediately reached for comment. ByteDance, General Atlantic and Sequoia declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Richard Waters in San Francisco
