Safra Catz, Oracle CEO, during a conference.Kim Kulish / Corbis via Getty Images
30-second videos with music are the discord in America.
The fact that the president, Donald Trump, has TikTok in his sights has opened several fronts in the technology sector.
His intention to oust ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the popular app, from the United States has driven a race against the clock since late July to find an American partner willing to comply with the chief negotiator's wishes.
Microsoft and Walmart have submitted to the offer, but in the end, what was thought to be the least likely bidder has reached the goal: Oracle.
The
software
company's relationship
with the Trump Administration has been the key to becoming the "technology partner" of the Chinese firm.
With the deal still to close, Oracle has emerged as the company that will manage to calm concerns regarding the security of the data that TikTok handles.
Trump, advised by cybersecurity agencies, accused ByteDance of storing the information of its users and then sending it to the Chinese Communist Party.
In the face of a trade war with China, the White House chooses to close any loopholes related to Beijing, including the technology industry.
In July, the US president called for the cessation of ByteDance's operations in the United States but suggested a possible exit: the Chinese firm should sell its operations in the country to a US company.
Trump donned the negotiating suit and proposed that a portion of the transaction go to the Treasury in return.
The first company to raise its hand was Microsoft, which had a particular interest in application code, but was not quite sure if it would get it.
This was followed by Walmart, whose success in the e-commerce business positioned it as a potential explorer in this offering.
Instead, Oracle finally reached an agreement in which it is estimated that it will not have a significant proportion of shares, but where it will have access to the algorithm that makes the application so popular.
According to
The Wall Street Journal
, the Californian company will have the TikTok formula and thus will be able to address the concerns of the US Government about national security.
It is still unknown whether Trump will agree to the proposal.
What is known is that in the eyes of the president of the United States, Oracle is the highest bidder.
"They could handle it," Trump replied in August of the company's interest in buying TikTok.
The company, founded in 1977, has also leaned in favor of Trump in different scenarios that could well represent a conflict of interest.
Its CEO, Safra Catz, was part of Trump's transition team in 2016;
and its founder, Larry Ellison, has been a major promoter of the Republican and just this year raised about $ 130,000 for her re-election campaign, at a ceremony held at her home in California.
The firm has among its businesses some contracts with the Government for at least 10 years and recently financed with almost a million dollars the lobbying of the Republican Party in the negotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trump has taken the offensive against TikTok personally.
The intervention of a US president in a transaction of this type is unprecedented.
The president issued a presidential order in August giving ByteDance 90 days to shut down all its operations in the United States.
On Friday, the White House confirmed that the Chinese social network could no longer be downloaded in the country as of this Sunday.
With the deadlines set by the White House, the margin for a negotiation of this type has been completely limited.
"We are going to close the application or they are going to sell it to an American company, we are going to see what happens," the president summarized.
TikTok has so far accumulated about 100 million users in the United States and its demand has increased considerably during the months of confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pressure from the United States on enforcement led to Kevin Mayer's resignation as CEO in August, when he had barely served three months in office.
Meanwhile, China has updated its rules for controlling exports, which involves some technology companies that do an analysis of the data they collect.
The Chinese government has accused Trump of
bullying
TikTok, but with the new rules it is reinforced in order to enter directly into negotiations with the Americans.