US tech giant Microsoft said on Sunday that its TikTok acquired offer is refused. Oracle has remained the lone bidder to sell or close down its US activities before the coming deadline for the video app from the Chinese.
The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times announced that Oracle won the bidding war, quoting people who are familiar with the contract, but the company did not confirm the matter to AFP immediately.
Next, the Oracle offer would require support from the White House and the United States Committee on International Investment, a source told the Newspaper, with both parties agreeing it would satisfy U.S. security issues regarding results.
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TikTok is in the middle of a geopolitical crisis, and President Donald Trump has given the Americans a time limit to avoid doing business with ByteDance, a Chinese parent company of TikTok — essentially pressuring them to buy the product from an American store.
Microsoft said it was interested to buy TikTok’s US operations at the beginning of August, but said it had declined the deal on Sunday.
“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft,” the US tech giant said in a statement. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests,” it added.
In early August, Trump released an executive order claiming that the site in the United States would have to close if a purchasing deal was not reached by 20 September.
Trump maintains that China could use TikTok to map federal employee positions, create human ransom dossiers and execute business espionage.
– Risks in Question –
With 175 million downloads in the United States, TikTok makes funky shortform videos on mobile phones for more than a billion users worldwide. It has refused the exchange of data with beijing repeatedly.
Microsoft said it would have “made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combating disinformation.”
Walmart may also have been involved in a contract with Microsoft, who joined forces in talks with the tech giant.
China’s trade ministry released new regulations in late August, possibly making it more difficult for ByteDance to market TikTok to a U.S. company by adding “civilian use” to a list of export-restricted technologies.
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ByteDance had promised to “strictly abide” to the guidelines on exports.
Meanwhile, TikTok filed a complaint contesting the US government’s ban, arguing that Trump’s directive was a violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because the site is not “an unprecedented and exceptional danger.”
Contentiously, Trump has ordered that the U.S. government break off any contract alleged by opponents to be illegal and mimic extorsion.
Washington suspected other Chinese tech giants including Huawei of operating within the Communist Party of China’s interests.
TikTok’s bidding comes in the wake of a larger breakdown of ties between the world’s top two economies of recent months, with the US and China caught up in heated recriminations over trade tensions, human rights and the source of the coronavirus pandemic.