Oracle Wants to Acquire TikTok Now, and Trump Would Likely Allow It

Oracle is in preliminary talks with ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company

 

Donald Trump has been resentful towards the Chinese video-sharing app, TikTok, for a couple of weeks now. He has been concerned about the security of the US citizens and the privacy of their data. So, he has been trying hard to get rid of this problem. The latest development in the story says that Oracle, a firm that favours Trump extensively, is interesting in acquiring TikTok. Here are the full details.

 

The Trump government has been very concerned about whether the Chinese government will use US users’ data acquired via TikTok and hence taken several actions against it. Trump has issued two Executive Orders against the app. The first one would probably ban the US companies from doing business with the video-sharing app, while the second would unwind ByteDance’s acquisition of Musical.ly, which is the precursor to TikTok. The deal happened in 2017.

 

Earlier this month, it was revealed that Twitter and Microsoft were interested in acquiring TikTok. Now, it has been revealed that Oracle is also interested. The company wants to buy not just US operations but also the offices in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

 

Though Microsoft was leading the race of acquisition till now, things have changed considerably with interest expressed by Oracle. The company’s history is the reason why. For those readers who are not aware, Oracle was created as a CIA-backed project in 1977 by Larry Ellison and played a key role in creating the modern surveillance state.

 

Oracle’s executives have close ties to Trump, and Ellison has even openly backed Trump. He also hosted a fundraiser for the President in February that was held at his home in Southern California. Even the CEO of Oracle, Safra Catz, has served on transition team of Trump.

 

So, it is likely that Oracle would get preferential treatment when it comes to the acquisition of TikTok, an app that has 2.3 billion downloads and has been valued between USD 30 – 50 (about AUD 41- 68) billion. Remember, Oracle is not just another humble Silicon Valley start-up like it pretends to be. It is likely that there will not be a tussle like the recent one between Epic Games and Apple.