Negotiations failed. The September 15 deadline to acquire TikTok is almost here, with the Chinese company risking shutdown if a deal does not go through.
And by the looks of it, one potential deal will officially not go through.
That’s because the video sharing social network has rejected Microsoft’s bid to buy its US operations. This has been confirmed by Microsoft itself in a brief statement that lets us know that ByteDance, the parent company, has other plans.
The words:
“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. 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. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”
That’s that, then.
As Microsoft makes clear in its press release, the software titan had grand plans for TikTok that not only included making significant changes to the platform to company with national security concerns, but also involved tweaking the TikTok algorithm.
Interestingly, rumors were circulating that ByteDance was not willing to sell the algorithm behind the video sharing platform as part of the negotiations with American companies.
Speaking of which, there are now signs that TikTok has selected Oracle as its technology partner in the country. The database and cloud giant will manage user data, though it is reportedly still considering buying a stake in TikTok as well.
This is far from over.
