Oracle challenges Microsoft, begins talks to acquire TikTok

Oracle is reportedly working with US venture capital firms to acquire TikTok’s US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in a direct challenge to tech giant Microsoft.

The enterprise software giant is reportedly in talks to acquire social media company TikTok, a person close to the matter told the Financial Times.

FT journalists breaking the news named General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital as two of the investors working with Oracle.

Microsoft has been working with the US government to acquire TikTok’s assets for more than a month.

Oracle’s co-founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison supported Washington’s intention to ban TikTok in the United States if Chinese owner ByteDance does not divest its US operations by November.

Trump’s order said that the US had “credible evidence” that ByteDance was using TikTok, which reached 2bn downloads worldwide in 2020, to breach US security.

ByteDance has repeatedly denied any allegations of improper data sharing.