Oracle reportedly in talks to acquire TikTok assets

Chinese company ByteDance is looking to divest from TikTok's U.S. operations on orders from President Donald Trump, and Oracle could be the firm that takes over.

Citing a person familiar with the matter, CNBC on Monday reports enterprise software specialist Oracle is throwing its hat into the ring as ByteDance eyes a lucrative TikTok sale.

Oracle is joining forces with a group of U.S. venture capital firms that currently own a stake in TikTok, the report said. While CNBC's failed to specify which investors are working with Oracle, a report from the Financial Times claims General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital are on board with the plan that would see an acquisition of TikTok's U.S., Canadian, Australian and New Zealand businesses.

Earlier this month it was reported that Microsoft was leading the pack with a potential bid topping out at $30 billion. Microsoft and Oracle's group are "far ahead" of other companies that have expressed interest in the popular social media app, CNBC reports.

As noted in the report, TikTok is an odd target for Oracle, which concentrates its efforts on enterprise solutions. The app could, however, deliver valuable customer data for Oracle's various marketing products.

Trump last week issued an executive order calling on ByteDance to divest from its U.S. TikTok business within 90 days. The new order supersedes a previous directive called on ByteDance to cut U.S. business ties within 45 days.

"There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance ... might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States," Trump's said in the Aug. 15 order.

11 Comments

Rayz2016 6957 comments · 8 Years

About 4 years ago

As noted in the report, TikTok is an odd target for Oracle, which concentrates on enterprise solutions. The app could, however, deliver valuable customer data for Oracle's various marketing products.
Really? There is literally no crossover between TikTok users and customers for Oracle's E-business suite.

I have yet to come across a combined cloud services deployment video that segues into a shuffle dance tutorial.

Beats 3073 comments · 4 Years

Company of the week.

MichaelKohl 25 comments · 4 Years

Rayz2016 said:
I have yet to come across a combined cloud services deployment video that segues into a shuffle dance tutorial.
Maybe it is about time making those deployment videos more fun with some dancing, rapping and some singing dogs.

gatorguy 24608 comments · 13 Years

Rayz2016 said:

As noted in the report, TikTok is an odd target for Oracle, which concentrates on enterprise solutions. The app could, however, deliver valuable customer data for Oracle's various marketing products.

Really? There is literally no crossover between TikTok users and customers for Oracle's E-business suite.

I have yet to come across a combined cloud services deployment video that segues into a shuffle dance tutorial.

Oracle is a major player in data aggregation (data-mining) and brokering (selling user data) and has a few different ad tracking/marketing subsidiaries. BlueKai would be one of the more recognizable ones.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/19/oracle-bluekai-web-tracking/
"Have you ever wondered why online ads appear for things that you were just thinking about?...
Tech giant Oracle is one of a few companies in Silicon Valley that has near-perfected the art of tracking people across the internet. The company has spent a decade and billions of dollars buying startups to build its very own panopticon of users’ web browsing data.
One of those startups, BlueKai, which Oracle bought for a little over $400 million in 2014, is barely known outside marketing circles, but it amassed one of the largest banks of web tracking data outside of the federal government."
Of note from the linked article: "...for a time, that (Oracle) web tracking data was spilling out onto the open internet because a server was left unsecured and without a password, exposing billions of records for anyone to find.... names, home addresses, email addresses and other identifiable data in the database. (It) also revealed sensitive users’ web browsing activity — from purchases to newsletter unsubscribes.
Typically, since Oracle isn't one of the major consumer tech "names", the data breach report didn't make it onto blogs and forums such as this one.
That Oracle would be interested in TikTok makes sense from their business standpoint IMO.

rotateleftbyte 1630 comments · 12 Years

Now that the POTUS is promoting 'Triller', isn't TikTok a dead duck in the USA? or OTOH, Triller is regarded by the typical TikTok user as seriously uncool?