Microsoft fails in bid to acquire TikTok

 

Microsoft has announced that its offer to buy the US operations of popular video-sharing app TikTok has been rejected.

US President Donald Trump gave a 15 September deadline for the Chinese-owned app to sell or shut down citing national security threats.

Microsoft led the race to buy TikTok from Chinese firm ByteDance, and their failed bid paves the way for Oracle.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Oracle, which sells database technology and cloud systems to businesses, had won the bidding war, citing people familiar with the matter.

On Sunday Microsoft announced that “ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests.”

“We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas,” its statement added.

Oracle’s chairman Larry Ellison is a supporter of Mr Trump and held a fundraising event for him in February.

Earlier this month Mr Trump said the government should get a “substantial portion” of the sale price of TikTok’s US unit if an American firm buys it.