Microsoft is in talks with ByteDance to acquire all of the Chinese social network TikTok’s activities in the United States, but the Redmond behemoth may face a new competitor in the race to grab TikTok.
According to the Financial Times, Oracle has expressed interest in acquiring TikTok, and it appears that the corporate software giant has already held preliminary talks with ByteDance.
On the other hand, the viral short video platform had been in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump, who gave the parent company ByteDance until November to divest the TikTok activities in the US.
Oracle, the company controlled by billionaire Larry Ellison is reportedly in talks with TikTok’s US investors, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, to consider a bid for the app’s operations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
A deal to buy a part of TikTok would be legally complicated and technically complex, and until now, Microsoft has been considered one of the few papable candidates as an American buyer.
According to earlier reports in the Wall Street Journal, Twitter had expressed an early interest in TikTok, but there appear to be serious concerns about his financial ability to reach the deal.
ByteDance has not made public any price for the platform, but according to what was reported by Bloomberg, analysts have positioned the market value between 20 and 50 billion dollars.
