Washington, September 16: President Donald Trump on Tuesday confirmed that he had heard that Oracle was very close to a deal with ByteDance's TikTok. According to a Reuters report, the Chinese company was seeking to keep majority ownership of the short video app.

Trump said that the Silicon Valley tech giant Oracle is "very close" to sealing a deal to become the US partner to TikTok to avert a ban in the United States. Trump ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok amid US concerns that user data could be passed to China's Communist Party government. President Trump had threatened to banTikTok in the United States if ByteDance does not comply. TikTok Rejects Microsoft's Offer to Acquire US Operations, Oracle Reportedly Wins Bid to Become TikTok's 'Trusted Tech Partner'.

According to sources quoted in the report, ByteDance has proposed that the Beijing-based company would keep a majority stake in TikTok's global business and create headquarters for TikTok in the United States.  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Monday that ByteDance has also offered to create 20,000 U.S. jobs with TikTok.

Microsoft on Sunday confirmed that it's not acquiring parts of TikTok’s operations after its bid was rejected by ByteDance. President Donald Trump initially threatened a September 15 deadline for a TikTok sale, before setting November 12 as the final deadline, with the threat of a potential ban.

The executive order required ByteDance to destroy any TikTok data from US users, and report to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States once all the data has been destroyed. ByteDance is also required to destroy any data collected from the TikTok precursor app Musical.ly, which the company bought in 2017.

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 16, 2020 07:53 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).