ByteDance Abandons Sale of TikTok’s U.S Operation Instead It’s Pursuing a Partnership

ByteDance, The parent company of Chinese short video sharing app TikTok has reversed its earlier decision of selling U.S operations of TikTok to an American entity, ByteDance is now engaging in a potential partnership with tech company Oracle Corp (ORCL).

U.S President Donald Trump, issued an ultimatum of 45 days last month for the company to surrender its U.S operations to an American entity. Microsoft Inc. (MSFT) has been a front runner in the race of purchasing TikTok due to its financial capabilities.

Last week, Trump said if the stipulated time elapses before ByteDance strikes a deal he will have no other alternative than to shut down TikTok in the U.S since he won’t be considering giving the company additional time to make the sale happen.

Currently, TikTok has over 100 million users in the United States, Trump’s administration has been on loggerheads with the company due to security of user data. All Chinese companies have a pact with the government to share data with governmental agencies when need be.

TikTok has always distanced itself from China first its services are not available in China, secondly the company says its servers are not located in China. Lastly the company said it would not comply with Chinese government to share users’ data.

According to the partnership, Oracle will become a technology partner and take control of TikTok’s U.S user data. Source revealed that Oracle is negotiating for a stake in the U.S operations of TikTok also.

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