Byte-Dance says TikTok’s proposed deal with Oracle will need both Chinese and United States approval. China has urged the United States to respect fair competition as the TikTok saga drags on. Byte-Dance said its proposed deal with Oracle will need approval not just in the United States, but in China as well.
Byte-Dance will reportedly continue to hold a majority stake in TikTok’s United States assets, but Oracle will become its technology partner and manage its data. President Donald Trump said he has not been briefed on the deal yet, but he’s not too pleased with it.
Demands from President Donald Trump that TikTok must be quickly sold to a United States company or face a nationwide ban sparked frantic talks between TikTok parent company Byte-Dance and the United States companies, including, Microsoft, Twitter, Wall-mart, and Oracle. These talks have been disrupted by complications, including Trump’s insistence that the United State government should receive a financial “cut” of any deal.
In recent days Microsoft has confirmed that its offer to purchase TikTok had been rejected and Tik-Tok goes with Oracle. Under these proposals, Oracle would become a “trusted technology provider” for TikTok’s United States operations. It would manage TikTok’s United States user data and claim a stake in its US operations.
While falling short of the outright acquisition of TikTok’s United States operations favored by anti-China hawks, this agreement could be satisfactory to Trump due to his key concern being the possibility of the company funneling United States user data to the Chinese government (allegations which TikTok has denied). The good relationship between the White House and Oracle co-founder and chair Larry Ellison – a rare pro-Trump voice in Silicon Valley – could also help secure the deal.
However, six Republican Senators, including Marco Rubio, have written to Trump calling on him to block any deal under which TikTok remains tied to ByteDance. Senator Ted Cruz has also written to Trump separately, arguing that the proposed deal “failed to meet the intent of [his] executive orders” and “raises serious national security concerns”.
The deal must be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US and any recommendation from the panel can subsequently be rejected by the President. The White House has said that a decision on the deal will be made soon.
The Chinese government has previously indicated that it would need to provide approval for the deal to go ahead. However, Reuters has reported that newly imposed export control rules – which require companies to obtain licenses before exporting certain critical technologies – would not apply to the TikTok content recommendation algorithm.
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