Silicon Valley Trump Supporter Joins Talks To Buy TikTok
Software company Oracle is in talks to acquire TikTok after President Donald Trump promised to ban the Chinese-owned app if Microsoft or some other American company does not purchase the social media platform before November, the Financial Times reported Monday.
Oracle is in talks with TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, to buy the app’s operations in the United States, the Financial Times reported.
Oracle’s co-founder, Larry Ellison, reportedly hosted a fundraiser for Trump in February and told Forbes in April that he supports the president.
Trump signed a pair of executive orders on Aug. 6 barring American transaction with ByteDance and Tencent Holdings, the parent companies of TikTok and WeChat, respectively.
The orders ban individuals from communicating with the companies for 45 days.
The president later suggested that he is amenable to the idea of Microsoft purchasing the upstart Chinese company, so long as the acquisition comes by Sept. 15. Trump also said a portion of profits from a potential sale should go to the U.S. Treasury.
His orders came amid scrutiny from American officials who believe TikTok is a threat to national security through its collection of user data.
Twitter is also in talks for a potential combination with TikTok in the U.S., The Wall Street Journal reported.
Oracle was working with investors that already own a stake in ByteDance, including Sequoia Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
Doug Leone, a Sequoia global managing partner, pressed the U.S. Treasury and White House adviser Jared Kushner to find a way to keep TikTok in the U.S.
Leone and his wife, Patricia, gave a combined $100,000 to Trump’s reelection bid in 2019, The Washington Post reported.
Leone also holds a position on the president’s task force for reopening the economy, The Post noted.
Sequoia remains supportive of TikTok and looks forward to the company reaching “a win-win solution for all parties” involved, Sequoia spokeswoman Natalie Miyake said in a statement.
Neither TikTok nor Oracle have responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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