The TikTok developments are becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with. This week, the Chinese-owned app, which is highly popular among Gen Z (and highly feared by boomers) has a new potential buyer.
The American tech company, Oracle has held preliminary talks with ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) and “and was seriously considering purchasing the app’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand,” reports the Financial Times.
Trump’s latest executive order, which extended the amount of time before any communications with TikTik would be a criminal offence by an extra 45 days, gave Oracle and its founder, Larry Ellison, the space to potentially steal TikTok from Microsoft.
Microsoft was the first to enter the race to acquire the short-form video app and is expected to have completed talks by September 15, although they refused to divulge us any more information until then, so it’s unclear how things are going to pan out. Last week, it seemed that Twitter had also entered the race on the hunt for a collaboration reminiscent of Vine. But, most don’t believe Twitter is a credible alternative to the multi-billion dollar tech giant due to its questionable ability to finance the deal.
Ellison is one of the richest men on the planet and, contradictory to the rest of Silicon Valley, is vocal in his support for President Trump, and appears to have his full support. During a speech in Yuma, Arizona, this week, Trump stated that Oracle would be “a great company” to take over TikTok.
Earlier this month, Trump controversially said that the government should receive a substantiation portion of the sale price of TikTok if acquired by an American firm.
Though it’s still unclear what on earth is going to happen with TikTok, Oracle seems like a bridge between Trump’s fear of TikTok’s data-storing practices and his rocky relationship with Silicon Valley.
