Now Oracle is Considering a TikTok Bid Too
We can add database maker Oracle to the list of U.S. companies that are willing to take the dubious step of divesting China-based TikTok for its own aims.
Sources close to Oracle told Bloomberg that the firm has approached investors to partner on a bid that would seize TikTok’s businesses in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Oracle’s bid for TikTok is no less crazy than Microsoft’s desire to own the company, and unlike Twitter, which is a more logical option, it has the financial wherewithal to make it happen: The firm has $43 billion in cash and other assets. But Oracle also has an important backer in the U.S. president, which said this week that Oracle “could handle” the transaction; not coincidentally, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison supports the president’s reelection efforts.
But Oracle has even less expertise with consumers than does Microsoft, and absolutely no experience in this market to speak of. It’s unclear how a video service favored by the young would fit in Oracle’s old-fashioned product lineup. But 100 million users in the U.S. are 100 million more users than Oracle has right now.