Microsoft announced on Sunday that its bid for TikTok was rejected.
TikTok
The owner of TikTok has chosen Oracle over Microsoft as its preferred suitor to buy the popular video-sharing app, according to a source familiar with the deal. Microsoft announced Sunday that its bid to buy TikTok has been rejected, removing a leading suitor for the Chinese-owned app a week before President Donald Trump promises to follow through with a plan to ban it in the US.
Microsoft said in a Sunday statement that TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, “let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft.” The Trump administration has threatened to ban TikTok by mid-September and ordered ByteDance to sell its U.S. business, claiming national-security risks due to its Chinese ownership. The government worries about user data being funnelled to Chinese authorities. TikTok denies it is a national-security risk and is suing to stop the administration from the threatened ban.
Walmart had planned to partner with Microsoft on the deal. It’s not clear if Walmart is still interested. Oracle has declined to comment. TikTok also declined to make any comment on Sunday.
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Microsoft said Sunday it was “confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests.” The company said it “would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combating disinformation.”
In addition, the Chinese government in late August unveiled new regulations that restrict exports of technology, likely including the artificial intelligence system TikTok uses to choose which videos to spool up to its users. That means ByteDance would have to obtain a license from China to export such technology to a foreign company.
The deal had come together rapidly after the administration ramped up its threats against TikTok this summer, despite TikTok’s efforts to put distance between its app and its Chinese ownership. It installed former Disney executive Kevin Mayer as its American CEO, but he resigned in August after just a few months on the job, saying the “political environment has sharply changed.”
