Oracle Corp has had preliminary discussions with TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance and was seriously considering buying the app's operations in the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, the Financial Times newspaper confirmed on Monday.
Oracle was working with few U.S. investors that already own a stake in ByteDance, which include the General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, the newspaper confirmed, citing people briefed regarding the matter.
Oracle to Buy TikTok Operations in US
ByteDance and TikTok did not have a comment on the FT report, while Oracle declined to comment. Reuters reported earlier this month that Twitter Inc had approached ByteDance to express interest in acquiring the U.S. operations of TikTok, while Microsoft Corp was still the favorite to clinch a deal.
The Financial Times said on Monday Microsoft has also seriously considered a bid to take over TikTok's global operations beyond the nations it outlined earlier in August. Microsoft is particularly interested in buying TikTok in Europe and India, where it was recently banned by the Indian government after border tensions with China, the newspaper said. But ByteDance is opposed to the idea of selling any assets beyond those in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, according to the report.
U.S. President Donald Trump last week ordered ByteDance to divest the U.S. operations of the video app within 90 days, ramping up pressure on the Chinese company over concerns about the safety of the personal data it handles. General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital were not immediately available for comment.
(With agency inputs)
