By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
The US government has given ByteDance more time to finalize a TikTok deal.
ByteDance Ltd reportedly has a week to sell the US arm of its video-sharing app TikTok. In August, the US government Donald Trump gave TikTok 90 days to find a suitable buyer in the US, claiming the video-sharing app is a threat to national security.
ByteDance Gets Another Week to Sell Its TikTok US Business
The US government has given ByteDance more time to secure new ownership of the US arm of TikTok. According to a report by Financial Times, the latest one-week extension was given by the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS). Now, ByteDance lawyers and the US Treasury had revealed that TikTok would need to secure a deal before the 4th of December.
Upon an unsuccessful deal, the Trump Administration would ban TikTok in the country over security concerns. In addition, the administration alleged that TikTok has been sharing private data of its US users with the Chinese government.
As noted in the Financial Times report, the US Treasury revealed the reason for the one-week extension. According to the Treasury, the extension was accorded to ByteDance “to allow time to review a revised submission that [CFIUS] recently received.”
Before now, the US government had given ByteDance more time to finalize a deal. The initial deadline was on the 12th of November but was later postponed till the 27th of November. Now, there is another extension till the 4th of December.
Microsoft, Oracle, and TikTok US
Following Trump’s order that directed ByteDance to sell TikTok US, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) proposed to acquire the business.
Microsoft unveiled details on its acquisition plan in a blog post on the 2nd of November, stating that the company would ensure “world-class security, privacy, and digital safety protections.” At the time of the announcement, Microsoft added that the deal should close not later than the 15th of September.
On the 19th of September, computer technology corporation Oracle announced that it had been selected to provide cloud technology to TikTok. The chief technology officer at Oracle, Larry Ellison, revealed that TikTok chose Oracle’s new Generation 2 Cloud infrastructure for the new service. Ellison further added the reason for TikTok choice. According to Ellison, the Generation 2 Cloud infrastructure is more secure, faster, and reliable than the older Generation.
Oracle CEO Safra Catz said:
“As a part of this agreement, TikTok will run on the Oracle Cloud, and Oracle will become a minority investor in TikTok Global. Oracle will quickly deploy, rapidly scale, and operate TikTok systems in the Oracle Cloud.”
Also, the CEO expressed her confidence in the new deal. She said Oracle would ensure data privacy to TikTok US users and other users globally.