Thread by @nowthisimpact

The Wall Street Journal reports that tech giant Oracle has beaten out Microsoft in a deal with ByteDance for TikTok’s U.S. operations. (1/9)

On August 6, 2020, President Trump had signed an executive order saying the U.S. government would ban TikTok in the country if ByteDance didn’t sell the app within 45 days. (2/9)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed that the Treasury Department did receive a proposal over the weekend, with Oracle serving as ByteDance’s ‘trusted technology partner ... making many representations for national security issues.’ (3/9)

It’s unclear what ‘trusted technology partner’ means, but the deal isn’t a sale, according to reports. Microsoft announced on September 13 that its bid was not accepted by ByteDance. (4/9)

Sec. Mnuchin said that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. will review the Oracle proposal this week and then make a recommendation to the president. (5/9)

He also said the proposal involves a commitment to headquarter TikTok global in the United States. He said this would mean adding 20,000 new jobs. The potential deal has been greeted with a heavy degree of skepticism in some tech quarters. (6/9)

‘A deal where Oracle takes over hosting without source code and significant operational changes would not address any of the legitimate concerns about TikTok, and... (7/9)

...the White House accepting such a deal would demonstrate that this exercise was pure grift,’ former Facebook executive Alex Stamos tweeted on September 13. (8/9)

Oracle founder and chairman Larry Ellison openly supports President Trump, holding a fundraiser for him in February. President Trump has called Ellison ‘a tremendous guy.’ (9/9)