An agreement on the future of TikTok in the United States is nearing its finalization. The main contender for the management of the American part of the social network is the American technology corporation Oracle, The Information reports citing its own sources.
- This option was supported by the management of the Chinese company ByteDance, and President Donald Trump also supports the participation of this company.
- It is reported that ByteDance is trying to maintain control over TikTok's operations, considering Oracle as a partner rather than a full-fledged buyer.
- It is also worth noting that since 2022, TikTok has already been using Oracle servers to store data of American users, which makes this option the most likely to be implemented.
- However, the structure and terms of the deal remain unclear. One of the possible options involves the creation of a new legal entity that would be partially owned by American companies.
- The proposed deal is based on a project where American users' data will be stored on Oracle's servers, and the company will have access to verify TikTok's recommendation algorithm.
Earlier, Trump said that four bidders were involved in the process, but did not specify the names of the participants. Other well-known American bidders interested in acquiring control of TikTok include a group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. There is also a group that includes tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley and YouTube star MrBeast. There was also a merger proposal from San Francisco-based Perplexity AI.
Earlier, the media reported that Chinese officials were considering selling TikTok's American unit to Elon Musk. However, the billionaire himself said he was not interested.
As a reminder, ByteDance has until April to complete the sale of TikTok to an American owner, otherwise the network will be banned in the United States. The platform was supposed to be blocked on January 19 under a law passed during the Biden administration, but Trump postponed the ban.
The main reason for TikTok's ban in the United States is concerns about a possible threat to national security due to parent company ByteDance's ties to the Chinese government.
This raises fears that China could access the data of American TikTok users or influence the social network's algorithms to promote certain narratives.
