Is the Oracle TikTok deal dead on arrival? According to China state-affiliated media China will not allow ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to Oracle (or Microsoft), nor will the company be allowed to give the source code to any U.S. buyers. CGTN Digital reports that its sources say that despite news reports to the contrary ByteDance will not be selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to Oracle.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury will be reviewing the deal for the U.S. operations of TikTok. The reported sale was designed to avoid an outright ban of TikTok in the United States because of concerns that data from U.S. citizens were being transferred to the communist government of China.
“We just got this proposal over the weekend it would be inappropriate for me to comment on it,” said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in an impromptu press gathering this afternoon. “It’s going to go through a national security review in the next couple of days and then we’ll be sitting down and reviewing it with the President. But as we’ve said before a condition of any deal is to make sure that we believe that the code is safe, that U.S .citizens personal data is safe, and that the phones are safe. We have a lot of confidence in Oracle so we’ll be reviewing the technical issues with them.
Oracle has confirmed Secretary Mnuchin’s statement that it is part of the proposal submitted by ByteDance to the Treasury Department over the weekend in which Oracle will serve as the trusted technology provider. Oracle noted that it has a 40-year track record providing secure, highly performant technology solutions.