Oracle Left as Sole Bidder after TikTok Rejects Microsoft’s Offer

"We believe Microsoft would only buy TikTok WITH its core algorithm which the Chinese government and ByteDance was not willing to budge," Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said in a note.

"Given the need now to get a green light from Beijing after its export rules were changed a few weeks ago, TikTok's days in the US likely are numbered with a shutdown now the next step," the analyst said.

Downloaded 175 million times in the United States, TikTok is used by as many as a billion people worldwide to make quirky, short-form videos on their cellphones. It has repeatedly denied sharing data with Beijing.

Microsoft said it would have "made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation".

A deal with Microsoft could also have included Walmart, which joined forces with the tech giant in negotiations.

Read also: Microsoft Confirms Plans to Acquire US Arm of TikTok

Ives said that even with Microsoft out of the picture, "while Oracle is technically the remaining bidder, without willing to sell its core algorithm we see no TikTok sale on the horizon."

"Oracle could be a technology partner, but a sale/divestiture of the US operations for TikTok remains the focus," he said.

TikTok meanwhile has filed a lawsuit challenging the crackdown by the US government, contending that Trump's order was a misuse of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because the platform is not "an unusual and extraordinary threat".

Controversially Trump has demanded that the US government get a cut of any deal, which critics contend appears unconstitutional and akin to extortion.

Washington has accused other Chinese tech firms such as Huawei of working in the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.

Read also: Hong Kong’s Nathan Law Advises the West to Abandon Chinese Technology Ties

Bidding for TikTok comes amid a broader deterioration of relations between the world's top two economies in recent months, with the US and China locked in fierce recriminations over trade disputes, human rights, and the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. 

(Writer: Daniel Hoffman) 

Source: http://u.afp.com/3EyD