Washington - The administration of US President Donald Trump is discussing transferring global operational control of TikTok to Oracle and a group of US investors, National Public Radio (NPR) reported on Saturday (25/1), citing sources familiar with the matter.
Under the plans under discussion, Chinese company ByteDance would retain a small stake in TikTok.
But the application's algorithms, data collection, and software updates will be managed by Oracle, allowing US investors to gain a majority stake in the application.
"The goal is for Oracle to effectively oversee and monitor what's going on with TikTok," one of the people involved in the talks told NPR, adding that ByteDance wouldn't be gone entirely, but Chinese ownership would be minimized.
In addition to Oracle, Microsoft was also involved in the potential deal. However, Walmart, which was previously involved in similar talks in 2020, chose not to proceed due to the high value of the application.
A meeting between White House officials and Oracle regarding the deal is expected next week.
According to the sources, Oracle is interested in taking a stake in TikTok worth “tens of billions of dollars,” although details of the deal are still being discussed.
So far, representatives from Microsoft, Oracle, TikTok, and the White House have not provided official comment on the talks.