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Microsoft loses bid to purchase TikTok

*It appears that Oracle may have emerged as the winner instead ─Report

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

Global tech giant Microsoft says it will not be purchasing the popular yet controversial video-sharing app any longer, as the company’s offer for TikTok’s US operations was rejected by ByteDance, the app’s owner.

TikTok is a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create and share 15-second videos on any topic.

It is ‘wildly’ popular with American teenagers, and is promoted as a video-sharing social network.

Microsoft in a statement said, “we are confident our proposal would have been good for

“To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement.”

ConsumerConnect recalls United States (US) President Donald Trump previously had threatened to take action to shut down TikTok’s US operations on national security grounds.

In early August, he signed an executive order that would ban both TikTok and social media platform WeChat within 45 days.

Citing national security concerns, the Trump administration has expressed concern that the Chinese apps could gather data from US users and share it with the Chinese Government.

Trump’s order stated: “This data threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information ─potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information and blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”

In late August, Walmart was reported to have joined the bidding frenzy to buy TikTok. Retail analysts called it a bold move since it had the potential to expose millions of young consumers to the Walmart brand.

However, it eventually appears that Oracle may have emerged as the winner.

Oracle’s bid for TikTok’s US operations topped Microsoft’s, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal’s report cites people knowledgeable about the situation as saying the deal might not be structured as an outright sale.

It’s, however, unclear if that would fly at the White House, report said.

Any deal would have to gain the approval of the Trump administration and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US.

The Chinese Government may be another factor in whether a deal goes through.

China reportedly appeared hostile to any deal in August when it enacted new export restrictions on the technology that powers the TikTok platform.

Those algorithms determine what videos TikTok users see.

Yet a recent CNBC report disclosed that the Chinese Government would rather suspend TikTok’s operations in the US than submit to a sale forced by the US Government.

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