The US President Donald Trump on Tuesday acknowledged the partnership between video-sharing app TikTok and Silicon Valley Giant Oracle, saying he has heard the deal is “very close.”
Trump’s comments come a day after Microsoft, who was one of the most sought for candidates in the race to buy app’s US operations, revealed that TikTok has decided to partner with Oracle, rejecting its bid.
The details of the deal remain unclear yet, but according to several media reports, Chinese firm ByteDance, who owns TikTok, will still have the majority ownership of the app. Oracle has, in fact, signed an agreement to be app’s ‘tech partner’ in the US as both the firms aim to reconstruct TikTok’s operations in the US.
TikTok has been facing flak in the US since Trump Administration called the app a threat to national securing, while accusing the app of selling users’ personal data to Chinese officials. Beijing, however, denied the accusations.
One of the other reasons for Trump to ban the app in the US could be country’s soaring relationship with China over world trade and its newly introduced controversial security law in Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Microsoft said its bid to acquire US operations of TikTok has been rejected by the app’s parent company, ByteDance. In addition to Microsoft, a number of prominent tech companies including Twitter, Google, and Walmart. had also shown interest in buying the app.
Oracle, who managed to clinch the deal, has shown tremendous growth in the share market. . Oracle has grown out of its database roots and made its way into marketing automation and cloud infrastructure. The company is not just a database maker and provider. It’s a massive operation, that monetizes off of data. Earlier in this pandemic, the enterprise data provider teamed up with Zoom. If Oracle were to bring the same kind of partnership to fruition with TikTok, it would have landed a huge client.
The TikTok-Oracle, however, requires nod from both Trump Administration and Beijing officials. Trump, while addressing the media, said that he is going to make a decision soon.