Trump’s supporter emerges as a surprise victor in TikTok deal

Chinese tech giant ByteDance informed Microsoft that it would not be selling its TikTok US operations to Microsoft. Oracle is now the winning bidder, and that has come as a surprise for many experts. Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, is a known Trump supporter.

As the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok approaches, the Chinese company informed Microsoft that they wouldn’t reach a mutual agreement.

“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 combatting 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 said in a short statement.

This means that Oracle is the winning bidder for a deal with TikTok’s US operations. While TikTok is a short video sharing app, Oracle sells database software and technology, cloud engineered systems, and enterprise software products.

The company was founded in 1977 by 76-year-old Larry Ellison, who served as CEO until September 2014. 

In April, Forbes published an exclusive interview with Larry Ellison. “I don’t think he’s the devil—I support him and want him to do well,” he said to Forbes about Trump. To be fair, he said he would support any president holding office.

Publicly, Donald Trump and Larry Ellison were linked this February when Oracle’s chairman hosted a fundraiser for the president. In response, around 300 employees walked out of their offices or stopped working at remote locations to protest the fundraiser. Larry Ellison explained that he only let Donald Trump use the property (the Rancho Mirage compound), and did not attend the fundraiser himself.