The hottest story in tech right now is the TikTok battle, which has been raging these past few weeks after a certain Donald Trump forced the video-sharing social network to find a US owner.
Things heated up a notch further a few days back when we learned that Microsoft had lost the battle to acquire TikTok — after it was deemed to be in pole position.
And now we know why.
Apparently, Microsoft is believed to have angered Zhang Yiming, the CEO of ByteDance that is the parent company of the social network, when it described the Chinese service as a security threat that it will fix by moving data to the United States.
This report reveals that Zhang did not like Microsoft’s approach, because Redmond sided with President Trump during the negotiations.
To be fair, this is what the software titan said back then:
“Microsoft will move quickly to pursue discussions with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in a matter of weeks, and in any event completing these discussions no later than September 15, 2020. During this process, Microsoft looks forward to continuing dialogue with the United States Government, including with the President. Microsoft appreciates the U.S. Government’s and President Trump’s personal involvement as it continues to develop strong security protections for the country.”
A carefully worded statement, albeit one that agreed to involve US officials in the discussions.
Enough apparently for ByteDance to reject its bid.
Anyway, this interesting little saga is thankfully nearing its end, as word is that TikTok is about to enlist Oracle of all companies for help. President Trump is expected to make a decision on this soon, and we’ll move onto the next hottest story in tech.
