Rachel Lerman and Jay Greene,

The Washington Post

September 13, 2020

SEATTLE – TikTok has chosen Oracle as its “technology partner” in a deal it thinks will satisfy U.S. regulator concerns about data security, according to a person familiar with the talks who asked to speak anonymously to discuss the deal.

Microsoft said Sunday that its offer to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations was rejected. Microsoft said in a blog post that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, said it would not sell to the tech giant.

“We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests,” Microsoft said in its post. “To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement.”

Walmart had joined Microsoft’s bid for TikTok. The rejection may leave tech company Oracle as a bidder for TikTok.

Oracle and TikTok declined to comment.

President Donald Trump in August signed an executive to ban transactions involving TikTok as soon as this week. TikTok filed a legal challenge against the government’s order to ban the video app.