Oracle Enters Race To Buy TikTok's US Operations (ft.com) 78
phalse phace writes: Oracle has entered the race to acquire TikTok [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], the popular Chinese-owned short video app that President Donald Trump has vowed to shut down unless it is taken over by a US company by mid-November, people briefed about the matter have said. The tech company co-founded by Larry Ellison had held preliminary talks with TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, and was seriously considering purchasing the app's operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the people said. Oracle was working with a group of US investors that already own a stake in ByteDance, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, the people added.
Microsoft has been the lead contender to buy TikTok since it publicly said in early August that it had held discussions to explore a purchase of the app's US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand businesses. Microsoft has also seriously considered a bid to take over TikTok's global operations beyond the countries it outlined this month, people briefed on the company's thinking have said. The Redmond, Washington-based company is particularly interested in buying TikTok in Europe and India, where the video app has been banned by Narendra Modi, Indian prime minister. ByteDance is opposed to selling any assets beyond those in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, said a person close to the company.
Microsoft has been the lead contender to buy TikTok since it publicly said in early August that it had held discussions to explore a purchase of the app's US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand businesses. Microsoft has also seriously considered a bid to take over TikTok's global operations beyond the countries it outlined this month, people briefed on the company's thinking have said. The Redmond, Washington-based company is particularly interested in buying TikTok in Europe and India, where the video app has been banned by Narendra Modi, Indian prime minister. ByteDance is opposed to selling any assets beyond those in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, said a person close to the company.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Rich
Asshole
Called
Larry
Ellison
Oracle + TikTok (Score:5, Funny)
Yep that will kill it.
Re:Oracle + TikTok (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft buying it promised a slow decline into irrelevance.
Oracle buying it means no one will remember it in December.
Re:Oracle + TikTok (Score:5, Funny)
Oracle burns through a bunch of money, and another social media platform dies?
Hmmm. There must be a downside.... must be...
Re: (Score:1)
TikTok features will get integrated into Java; creating yet more bugs, holes, and bloat.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Hopefully.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft buying it promised a slow decline into irrelevance.
Oracle buying it means no one will remember it in December.
As long as President Trump gets his cut all else is irrelevant.
Re: (Score:2)
So true. I just wonder when Oracle will sue Microsoft because MS has an unfair advantage.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe that is entirely the point. If I was a government that hated some social media thing, incentivising a local company to buy it and let it die might seem like a great idea!
Re:Oracle + TikTok (Score:4, Funny)
Yep that will kill it.
Sounds like a win-win to me.
Re: (Score:1)
I hope by "it" you mean the Big Red.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. Nothing would kill any interest people have in TikTok faster than Oracle. At least Microsoft has purchased github, linkedin and other stuff and managed to make them better.
Re:Oracle + TikTok (Score:4, Funny)
Yep that will kill it.
Maybe Oracle can buy Facebook and Twitter too? :P
Worse than China (Score:4, Interesting)
Oracle would be worse than China. No exaggeration.
What, you don't believe me? Watch this interview with the CEO of Oracle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
China despite it's bad intentions can do less damage than Oracle. This is like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Just because we're hiding from a tiger doesn't mean we're safe in a snake pit.
Re: (Score:3)
He sold out the arena, so fundraising goal met.
What fundraising? The tickets were free.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/are-tickets-to-trump-rallies-free-heres-how-much-it-costs-to-attend-a-trump-rally.html/ [cheatsheet.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Really? I thought they cost money. My bad.
Still, my main point stands.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, "selling out" a free event is a big win, especially since the "sold out" tickets were a bunch of people on different continents trolling.
It was basically a distributed denial of service.
Re: (Score:2)
I think in general politics when one side pulls off some sort of 'take that' against the other side, only people already on their side get any gratification.
While it may have been a fun and gratifying stunt for those that oppose him, there is always a risk that shenanigans will cause people in the middle to doubt the ones doing the stunt more than the person the stunt is directed at.
The media is pretty bad for it. Trump is a very bad president and gives so much legitimate ammunition for looking bad in cover
Re: (Score:2)
The CEO of Oracle, Larry Ellison, provided a venue for Trump to hold a fundraiser back in February .. so pretty sure this is a return favor.
Re: (Score:2)
The US government isn't taking control of a US company for the government's benefit, it's forcing a foreign country out of US business ownership for the benefit of US business in general. The key difference is the US government doesn't own anything once China is out. For Trump this is about getting a trade advantage over China. The Chinese nationalizing a car company is about leveraging a trade advantage against its own people. To my mind, that's a very different thing.
While on the surface both actions see
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So it's fine if China just decides that Apple should be Chinese and tries to force a sale to Huawei?
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. There are numerous actions China could take against Apple such as forcing it to open up iMessages .. allow competing app stores etc.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Don't know if you've been paying attention but that's literally been China's policy for years. Every foreign company that opens up shop in China by law has to partner with a domestic firm that will proceed to steal their IP.
What the US is doing is not stealing Tik Tok. They are kicking them out of the US market. However instead of forcing Tik Tok to eat the losses of leaving the market they are being allowed to sell their assets at a fair price. Is it unfair to Tik Tok? Well maybe. But we are in a Cold War
Re: (Score:2)
I know, I'm saying if it's okay for the US to do then why complain when China does it?
Re: (Score:2)
Well for one we aren't doing the same thing so you can't compare them.
But I did say I would be ok with it if we did. Why? Because the CCP is evil they don't deserve fair play just like the Soviets and Nazis before them didn't either. Only civilized nations that respect freedom and liberal principles deserve to sit at the table and enjoy the benefits.
Furthermore we are justified in no longer playing fair because they've been playing dirty for so long. They tell us when we are kids that two wrongs don't make
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
While I agree with your message, I will say that to the extent US is not stealing TikTok, neither is China stealing anyone coming along by the same token. In both cases the alternative would be being kicked out of the country and the company deciding to play ball with the respective government is a choice in both cases.
Strangely we have this view of 'but all companies *have* to be in the China market', which simply isn't true. Companies can and should nope on out of there instead of playing ball with them.
Re: (Score:2)
That's a fair point. I posted elsewhere about why I think this happens. Because at this point you'd have to be blind to not see it coming right? China is gonna China.
I think its because corporate america has thoroughly destroyed the concept of loyalty. Businesses treat everyone like shit. Used to be you could get a job at Ford or IBM or wherever right out of college and be a lifer, work your way up to senior management or wherever the Peter Principle dropped you off and you could retire with a decent pensio
Re: (Score:2)
No, it's two similar things but with very different implications.
To reverse it and show what I mean, the implications for the Chinese people when China nationalizes a Chinese business are very bad, and all Chinese citizens should be very concerned. Unfortunately for Chinese citizens, this kind of thing has been happening in China for decades, so they are pretty much SOL.
On the other hand, Chinese citizens should not be particularly concerned if China decides to force Apple to sell their Chinese business hol
Re:Worse than China (Score:4, Interesting)
But national security! American apps stealing all those Chinese people's data! The corrupt adminstration that puts kids in cages and grabs period off the street for protesting!
Any argument the US can make about TikTok the Chinese can make about Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
Not a US business in general but specifically to reward Larry Ellison (Oracle CEO) for providing Trump with a venue to hold a fundraiser back in February.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't think that's the main reason. I think the main rationale for taking TikTok from China is so US law enforcement has easy reach of its data whenever they want to investigate its users. In other words I don't see a real national security concern (which should remove it from Trump's whims) but it is a law enforcement issue.
Re: (Score:3)
That doesn't make much sense - the justice system already has the ability to access that information through the usual channels - warrants and subpoenas.
Those mechanisms don't change at all if it's a US company owning TikTok rather than China. In fact, the courts would have a slightly weaker justification for gathering that information. I don't think the law enforcement angle works.
Even if that weren't the case, why would Trump, in particular, care about enhancing the reach of law enforcement into US busine
Relax they're just screwing with Microsoft (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Kind of funny given that Bruce Scott's password was 'tiger'. He was co-author/architect of what would eventually become Oracle.
Re: Worse than China (Score:2)
He does have access to everones medical data btw. Oracle DBs are used frequently by pharma, hospitals, and medical research facilities and they frequently send db backups to Oracle for tech support. I've seen it with my own eyes. He wants more direct access though and sadly in the years after that interview got it with cloud and block chain type offerings. Most probable reason? His ego wants credit for cures.
anyway the guy named his company
Re: (Score:1)
Someone described Ellison as "Trump with an attention span"
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's even worse than that. The alleged president (I cannot make this up) said he approves of Oracle buying Tik-Tok and that the U.S. Treasury should get a cut of the price. "Gee, nice company you have there, be a shame if my pal wanted to buy it and I didn't get to gaslight it into a Win for the Presidency". The alleged president corrupts everything he touches.
Everyone will have a friend named Scott (Score:3)
Hi, we are here to audit your TikTok installation (Score:5, Funny)
The license for dancing will cost you an additional amount of $$$...
Let me help (Score:5, Interesting)
"Oracle Makes another Desperate Bid for Relevance"
Good grief talk about a company just racing outside their core competencies. I mean when I think Oracle, I certainly don't think social media! Actually I have always thought of Oracle as being about as anti-social as they can get away with.
Re: (Score:2)
Tiktok fits in with their model of privacy invasion and selling user behavior data .. something Larry Ellison has been saying for a very long time he wants to get into .. see the interview on youtube I mentioned above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh I know that. Larry's problem though is nobody likes or trusts Oracle. Almost everyone seeks to avoid them or is actively trying to disengage.
The groups that are not doing so are pretty much. 1) DBA that know the flag ship product inside and out and build a career on it when it was virtually the only game in town at a certain scale; these guys want to pay check for a few more years until they can retire and not to have retrain. 2) Companies with so much infrastructure and product tied to Oracle leaving
Re: (Score:2)
First off SAP has nothing to do with this conversation at all. Its not an Oracle product and does not have to run on an Oracle database.
Peoplesoft is NOT something I'd generally pick over SAP given the choice. There are plenty of other alternatives though even to those two. Great Plains, is the obvious other place to go; I would have said JDE but that belongs to Oracle now. You could of course outsource a lot of your GL and ERP to places like Salesforce, or ServiceNow as well.
I don't know exactly what you
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know exactly what you mean by full suite; but I think its entirely possible to run an F500 without Oracle anything except maybe Java.
Ask IBM . . . they're probably running DB2 instead of Oracle.
Re: (Score:2)
Who says you have to get all solutions from one company? There are plenty of examples of using different applications from different companies to get the job done, and not have to deal with the user-surly-borderlining-on-abusive relationship that literally every Oracle customer has.
It's to the point where you can run a Fortune 500 and not have any Oracle-licensed code at all, actually; and it's probably cheaper (TCO) and better too.
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe they are looking for a reason to use their cloud, which nobody else seems to want. It's kind of like the International Space Station: it was allegedly built to give astronauts a destination.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
If you want TikTok dead and gone, and you're willing to do whatever it takes, then just give it to the sixth wealthiest man in the world and watch as it joins the ranks of Oracle cloud, SUN, Solaris, Taleo, OpenSolaris, OpenOffice, MySQL, and SUN Java as notable applications that despite a workforce of a hundred thirty thousand simply could not be managed for more than a few months before being completely driven into the ground..../
Actually the credit for that goes to Safra Catz [wikipedia.org]. Being an ex-Oracleite I can confidently say that she is more ruthless than Larry can imagine.
Are people still buying Oracle Stuff? (Score:3)
Their Database was the big name for the company. Mainly due to the fact on how well it worked on Big Iron systems Where the database will function well with a billion rows...
Today in 2020, we have a large set of Database Systems available, Such as Microsoft SQL Server - PostgreSQL which on modern systems can handle the billions of rows just as well as the big iron of yesteryear. And for less money, across the board, including support, hardware, licence fees, and consulting services.
Buying Sun Micrososystems basically killed the Sparcs platform, which was one of the early 64bit systems available. Java for the most part is being decoupled from modern systems just to avoid whatever wrath Oracle has on its current cash grab attempt.
I know of a few companies still using Oracle, and it has been to their detriment. As when they get an outage it lasts for days, and their uptime isn't that much better than other companies using different products.
Re: (Score:2)
Buying Sun Micrososystems basically killed the Sparcs platform
amd64 killed the SPARC platform. It was already dying, that's why Sun got bought out in the first place.
Re: (Score:2)
amd64 killed the SPARC platform.
And ARM64 finished it off.
Re: (Score:2)
It was a bit more than that.
* We had Linux competing against Solaris Unix. For most application Linux was good enough and much cheaper.
* The AMD64 was a bit part, but the fact it was used on a large set of whitebox PC Based servers was a bigger deal. At the same of AMD64 architecture came out. There was also a rise on PC Based Rack Mounted servers. Some with Intel 32bit chips as well. This gave people more options for server hardware.
* Sun hardware was expensive. It was well built and better than what say
Touch of death... (Score:2)
Best way to kill a product? Sell it to Oracle...
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder if they'd consider a joint venture? Maybe the kill circle would encompass other social media just through sheer failure mass?
And how much will it cost? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Please get Oracle licensing correct... technically it $1000/user per device per core, $10k per 1MB of data transferred, 20k per 1Gig of memory (Available, not used) on device 15k if you sign on even days, 17k if you sign on odd days, support is 60k per year, no adding it later if you need it, you must have it from the beginning. 100K if your mother is a mammal, 500k if the sky is blue.
I'm sure I'm missing some stuff...
Re: (Score:1)
If you want tiktok... (Score:3)
Great (Score:2)
I'm sure Oracle is just chomping at the bit to charge $49.95 per month for Tiktok usage and then wonder why they're closing it down a year or two later.
TikTok is the best app (Score:1)
Any American company taking ownership will guarantee its demise.
Exciting (Score:2)
Oracle? (Score:1)
LOL, What could go wrong? ... And so on.
We know you like this interface, however you're stupid. Here's a better interface.
You like your videos, you need to use our software for your videos. We own all content BTW.
Here is something else that was working fine and we'll change it, just because.
Hotmail didn't kill Gmail (Score:2)