By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
After Trump’s executive order directing TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell its U.S. business in 90 days, Microsoft and Oracle are said to be competing to purchase the Chinese video-sharing app.
Lawrence Ellison, CEO at Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) that is a long-time business rival of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), is said to be in talks with TikTok parent company ByteDance to acquire its U.S., Canadian, Australian and New Zealand assets. Through his company, Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) will be challenging Microsoft’s possible TikTok acquisition, where the talks are said to already be underway.
Oracle is reported to be working with a group of U.S. venture capital firms that already have a stake in TikTok. However, the said companies have not yet officially announced.
Perhaps it is the main reason ORCL shares were up 2.98% in the pre-market to trade around $55.60.
Microsoft has been in lengthy discussions with ByteDance to finalize the deal. However, with Oracle’s new interest in purchasing TokTok, ByteDance might be on a vantage point on deciding the buyer.
The cold relationship between China and the United States is negatively affecting their respective companies with bad policies for their businesses. Being a Chinese tech company, the United States feels threatened with its operations directly in the country.
“There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,” Trump stated in the executive order.
Goals Oracle in Acquiring TikTok
By acquiring TikTok, Oracle will be seeking to diversify its revenue that has been declining. In addition, Oracle could use the customer data collected by TikTok to improve on its core business, despite it facing a class-action lawsuit for violating EU GDPR.
If Oracle succeeds in purchasing TikTok business in the United States, it will be able to improve on its shares that have struggled through the coronavirus crisis. For the past seven months or so, Oracle shares have only managed to rise around 1.91%. Whereas, Microsoft shares have jumped over 33% in the same period.
With both companies capable of purchasing TikTok worth billions of cash, ByteDance will be counting long term losses for losing part of its business.
ByteDance is counting less than three months to complete the sale process, according to the issued executive order. Possible retaliation from the Chinese counterparts might be underway in response to the U.S. attack on its tech companies.
Previously, different Chinese media outlets have called the U.S. executive order as theft.