ByteDance drops TikTok’s US sale, to partner with Oracle

ByteDance abandoned the sale of TikTok in the United States on Sunday in pursuit of a partnership with Oracle Corp that it hopes will spare it a US ban while appeasing China’s government, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The Beijing-based company had been in talks to divest TikTok’s US business to either Oracle or a consortium led by Microsoft Corp after US President Donald Trump ordered the sale last month and threatened to shut down the popular short-video app in the United States.

While TikTok is best known for its anodyne videos of people dancing that go viral among teenagers, US officials have expressed concerns that information on users could be passed on to China’s communist government.