TikTok could be banned in the US if not bought by a US firm
In an interesting turn of events, Cloud major Oracle has entered the race to acquire TikTok as US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to direct China-based ByteDance to sell its TikTok business in the US within 90 days.
According to a report in The Financial Times on Tuesday, Oracle "held preliminary talks with TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, and was seriously considering purchasing the app's operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand".
According to the report, Oracle was working with a group of US investors that already own a stake in ByteDance, "including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital". Oracle was yet to comment on the report.
"ByteDance is opposed to selling any assets beyond those in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand," said the report.
Microsoft is the frontrunner to purchase TikTok's US business following a discussion between the company's CEO and the US President. However, reports surfaced that the Microsoft-TikTok deal may not happen as odds of the deal are "not higher than 20 per cent".
The probability of Microsoft buying TikTok is "not higher than 20 per cent" since the initial price offered by the US software giant was akin to "robbing the owner when his house is on fire", reported the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Earlier reports also claimed that Twitter discussed a "potential combination" with TikTok, currently facing immense political heat in the US. Apple, however, clarified that it was not interested in acquiring TikTok after some reports surfaced, saying the iPhone maker was willing to buy the China-based app.
The earlier executive order from Trump prohibited the China-based company from doing business with the US firms after 45 days. TikTok has already threatened legal action against the first executive order.
The new executive order directed ByteDance to "divest any data it obtained from users of TikTok or Musical.ly in the United States". It also authorised US officials to inspect TikTok and ByteDance to ensure the safety of personal data of nearly 80 million American users of the short video making app.
The earlier executive orders were issued amid discussion by Microsoft to purchase the US business of TikTok by September 15.
