Bytedance picks Oracle over Microsoft for TikTok US deal

Chinese multinational firm ByteDance chose Oracle as its technology partner to control the US operations of its widely popular app TikTok on Monday, reported PTI. President Donald Trump had issued an executive order to ByteDance, giving it a September 20 deadline to stop its operations, if it did not sell off its assets to a US firm.

Microsoft said in a statement on Sunday that ByteDance had rejected its deal to acquire the app. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests,” Microsoft said in a blogpost.

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The company will need the permission of both the Chinese and US governments to finalise the deal.

A report in The New York Times said it was unclear whether TikTok choosing Oracle as a technology partner would mean that the multinational computer technology corporation would also take a majority ownership stake of the social media app.

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In an executive order signed last month, Trump had said that TikTok would be blocked in the US if it did not sell its US operations to an American company by September 20. The Trump administration has said that TikTok and other Chinese apps are national security threats.

The company, however, rubbished the claims that it is providing user data to the Chinese government. Referring to it as ‘misinformation and lies,’ TikTok said that any insinuation to the contrary is unfounded and blatantly false.