Oracle to take charge of TikTok’s US biz; may help ByteDance avoid ban

Microsoft announced Sunday that its bid to buy TikTok has been rejected

The owner of TikTok has chosen Oracle over Microsoft as its preferred suitor to buy the popular video-sharing app, according to a source familiar with the deal.Under the proposed deal, Oracle will be ByteDance’s technology partner and will assume management of TikTok’s U. S. user data, the sources said. Oracle is also negotiating taking a stake in TikTok’s U. S. operations, the sources added. Some of ByteDance’s top backers, including investment firms General Atlantic and Sequoia, will also be given minority stakes in TikTok’s U. S. operations under the proposed deal, one of the sources said.Microsoft announced Sunday that its bid to buy TikTok has been rejected, removing a leading suitor for the Chinese-owned app a week before President Donald Trump promises to follow through with a plan to ban it in the US.

Microsoft said in a Sunday statement that TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. The Trump administration has threatened to ban TikTok by mid-September and ordered ByteDance to sell its US business, claiming national-security risks due to its Chinese ownership. The government worries about user data being funneled to Chinese authorities. TikTok denies it is a national-security risk and is suing to stop the administration from the threatened ban….

TikTok will ‘strictly abide’ by new China export regulations: ByteDance

TikTok owner ByteDance has said it will abide by the new rules set by China for technologies that are subject to export bans or restrictions

TikTok owner ByteDance has said it will abide by the new rules set by China for technologies that are subject to export bans or restrictions. China updated the list of technologies that are subject to export bans last week amid pressure on the app’s parent company ByteDance by the White House to divest its business in the US quickly or face an effective ban.

The new list, released jointly by China’s Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology, added 23 items to export restrictions while technical parameters of 21 items were revised. On Sunday, ByteDance said “the company will strictly abide” by the new export rules, reports CNBC. All technology transfers abroad, whether through trade, investment or other means, must strictly abide by relevant regulations on technology import and export of the country, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Friday. The update could affect a potential TikTok deal in the US.

“As a fast-growing innovative enterprise, ByteDance has many cutting-edge technologies in artificial intelligence and other fields, and some technologies may have been covered by the adjusted catalogue,” Professor Cui Fan at the University of International Business and Economics told Xinhua. Two new items under the category of information processing technology in the computer service industry were cited by Cui as relevant in the TikTok deal, which was the “personalized information push service technology based on data analysis” and “artificial intelligence interactive interface technology.”