The Californian group Oracle confirmed Monday, September 14 that it had made a proposal for the Chinese video-sharing application TikTok, as the US government had announced earlier. The takeover of the American branch of the Chinese social network by an American company is at the heart of a battle between Washington and Beijing.
Without giving further details, Orcale, a Californian company specializing in software and services for businesses, thus confirmed the announcement made earlier by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, announcing that Oracle would, with this new proposal, “A trusted technological partner” for the country.
Steven Mnuchin did not specify what form the partnership between the Chinese group ByteDance, parent company of TikTok, and the Californian group could take. Donald Trump had demanded by decree a sale of the American operations of TikTok, a platform for short videos.
“We will examine this at the Cfius committee [des investissements étrangers aux Etats-Unis] this week, then we will make a recommendation to the president and discuss it with him ”, Steven Mnuchin said. He said that discussions would be held “With Oracle over the next few days”, regarding data security.
Microsoft’s Sunday offer rejected
“I don’t want to go into the details of the negotiation, I would say that a [élément] that has always been essential to us is national security, ensuring that the technology on American phones is safe ”, he insisted, evoking “Great confidence in Microsoft and Oracle”.
ByteDance, Chinese parent company of TikTok, refused Sunday the takeover offer from the American computer giant Microsoft. The American company had expressed at the beginning of August its interest in the acquisition of the American operations of TikTok. President Donald Trump, who has accused the popular social network of spying for China’s benefit for months without proof, has issued executive orders to force ByteDance to quickly sell TikTok’s activities on American soil.
If a buyout agreement is not found, the short video platform will have to shut down in the United States. Steven Mnuchin clarified that the deadline was September 20, and not September 15 as Donald Trump had previously envisioned.
