Oracle Beats Microsoft for TikTok Deal

On Monday Oracle announced that it has struck a deal with TikTok’s owner ByteDance to become the ‘trusted technology provider.”

The deal, which still needs U.S. government approval, comes weeks after the Trump administration ordered a TikTok divestiture in the United States. The U.S. government will still need to approve the deal.

“Oracle confirms Secretary Mnuchin’s statement that it is part of the proposal submitted by ByteDance to the Treasury Department over the weekend in which Oracle will serve as the trusted technology provider,” Oracle announced on Monday.

Mnuchin said to CNBC that the U.S. government plans to review the deal this week. “I will just say from our standpoint, we’ll need to make sure that the code is, one, secure, Americans’ data is secure, that the phones are secure and we’ll be looking to have discussions with Oracle over the next few days with our technical teams,” said Mnuchin on “Squawk Box.”

The White House had imposed a Sept. 20 deadline for ByteDance to announce a plan for a sale of TikTok in the U.S. or be banned by Sept. 29th. The deal would have to be done by Nov. 12. TikTok has aruged that the Chinese government doesn’t have access to user data as American’s have shown concern that their data would be shared to China’s government.

“We can confirm that we’ve submitted a proposal to the Treasury Department which we believe would resolve the Administration’s security concerns,” TikTok has stated. “This proposal would enable us to continue supporting our community of 100 million people in the U.S. who love TikTok for connection and entertainment, as well as the hundreds of thousands of small business owners and creators who rely upon TikTok to grow their livelihoods and build meaningful careers.”

Microsoft had also been interested in TikTok’s U.S. operations but the company’s bid was rejected, and the company announced over the weekend that it had withdrawn from the process.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.