What Oracle-Tiktok Deal Means for World’s Most Valuable Startup

It was announced on Monday that Oracle had reportedly beaten Microsoft in the race to buy TikTok’s US operations.

A very important move by TikTok to avoid being banned by the Trump administration. The app is the fastest growing social network in the world with two billion downloads and growing by 58% in the last three months alone, according to Sherif Makhlouf, a member of the Egyptian Junior Business association.

Tiktok is owned by the Chinese behemoth ByteDance dubbed the world’s most valuable startup (valued at $100 billion), which gives it tons of reach and financial muscles.

[caption id="attachment_150440" align="aligncenter" width="351"] Sherif Makhlouf[/caption]

Another very interesting statistic about the app is that 41% of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24, which makes it extremely desirable to many strategic partners looking to penetrate that highly elusive and exceptionally attractive user segment.

Makhlouf said that an outright sale of Tiktok US does not seem to be what will happen based on the Wall Street Journal reported that Oracle would become TikTok’s “trusted tech partner” in the US. A trusted partner is usually not a term you use to describe an acquisition transaction.

Also, he elaborated that the Chinese state media unquestionably reported that ByteDance will not be giving access to its recommendation algorithms to any buyer, since the algorithms are thought considered the company’s most valuable asset.

Another aspect to consider is if Trump will approve the TikTok-Oracle deal? Probably not. Even thou the Trump administration, a known alley of Oracle’s chairman Larry Ellison, the deal does not fully provide the administration the comfort it needs in knowing that US users date will remain protected from the Chinese snooping eye.

All in all, Tiktok still have till November 12 to make its move, that is the deadline set by Trump to ban the app. It remains unclear how exactly he will be able to that, given that he doesn’t have the power to order internet providers to block TikTok.

A possible expected path would be with an executive order requiring Apple and Google to remove the app from their app stores, sighting possible malicious activity. On the other hand, TikTok has already filed a lawsuit challenging the president’s authority to limit Americans’ access to the app.