Microsoft dismisses the claims of buying Tik Tok

Microsoft is officially out of the race to buy TikTok. The company issued a brief statement on it. Meanwhile, ByteDance seems poised to announce a deal with Oracle, the only other known US company left in the bidding war.

In its statement, Microsoft said, “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combating disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”

Microsoft did not specify what changes to the service it had proposed. However, the announcement from Microsoft comes on the heels of a report this weekend from a news source that ByteDance was unwilling to sell its highly effective algorithm to a US bidder. To keep users hooked on the service, an American buyer would have had to rewrite the underlying code that has been so essential to the service’s success. According to the report, ByteDance informed both US officials and would-be buyers of its decision.

Microsoft’s announcement comes days before a September 15th deadline set by President Trump. Microsoft confirmed in early August that it was considering a purchase of TikTok’s US arm. With Microsoft out of the race, the reports say that Oracle is the only known American suitor.

“Oracle is set to be announced as TikTok’s ‘trusted tech partner’ in the U.S., and the deal is likely not to be structured as an outright sale." A source familiar with the matter confirmed to the newspaper as well that TikTok plans to move forward with Oracle, though the terms of the deal, and whether it can even be considered an acquisition per se, remain unclear.