In a race to win the auction, companies from across the United States showed their interest in owning the right to TikTok.
In an unseen turn of events, Oracle Corp. won the bidding for the U.S operations of TikTok. What came as an even bigger surprise was that the company won against Microsoft Corp.
According to an article by the Wall Street Journal, Oracle is set to be announced as TikTok’s “trusted tech partner” in the U.S.
Moreover, the deal is likely not to be structured as an outright sale. Now that Oracle has won the bid, the next step in the process is for the White House and Committee on Foreign Investment to ink the deal.
For those who are unaware, TikTok had been facing a tough time by the US government over concerns about data security.
Hence, to continue its operations in the country, the government allowed companies to place bids. The auction for operation rights will help put an end to the US government’s concerns about TikTok being a threat to data and even national security.
The complete structure of the deal with Oracle is still unclear at this point. This also includes the structure of TikTok’s popular algorithms and the artificial intelligence tech it uses.
TikTok has been in hot waters for some time now, not only in the United States but in several other countries, including Pakistan as well.
The Pakistani government reached out to the parent company ByteDance to address their concerns, hoping to find a middle ground. TikTok also issued community guidelines (in Urdu) to help the users stay safe on the platform.
Pakistani citizens have filed many complaints against the video-dubbing platform over several reasons, which include indecent content and concerns in regards to young children being unsafe on the forum.
According to Bloomberg, a ‘source’ who did not want to be identified as the information is not yet publicly shared; the deal is likely to include a stake in a newly configured American business but will look more like a corporate restructuring than an outright sale.
Another ‘source’ shared that the terms between ByteDance and Oracle are still evolving. However, a third ‘source’ shared that it is unclear at the time if whether or not a deal with Oracle will win-over the Trump Administration.
Another ‘source’ also shared here that the existing stakeholders in ByteDance will be given a chance to share their two cents. Meanwhile, both Oracle and ByteDance have declined to provide any official statement on their ends for now.
We look forward to seeing how this partnership turns out for both sides.
Until then, stay tuned to Brandsynario for more news and updates.