Microsoft loses to Oracle in bid to claim TikTok's US operations

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Microsoft has confirmed it will not buy TikTok in the United States. In a statement on Microsoft's corporate site, the company confirms that TikTok owner ByteDance has declined its proposal. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that Oracle has won the race to acquire the popular app's US operations.

"We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests," the statement reads. "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."

According to anonymous sources speaking to the Washington Post, ByteDance has proposed to the US government that rather than sell its US operation entirely, it retain ownership, while transferring cloud management to a US company. If this is true, the Oracle partnership makes sense. It makes a lot of sense for other reasons, too: According to the same Washington Post report, Oracle executives are "close" with US President Donald Trump.

Trump issued an executive order in September banning any transactions related to TikTok. A similar order was targeted at the Tencent-owned WeChat.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.