TikTok sale to Walmart and Oracle shelved

Posted on by Prakhar Khanna

Last year in September, TikTok reached a deal with Oracle and Walmart to avoid its US ban. The Trump administration had approved the deal, which was supposed to effectively establish a new company called TikTok Global headquartered in the US. Tiktok was given the December 4 sale deadline, which came and went with no response from the outgoing Trump administration. Reportedly, Trump also demanded that the US Treasury get a “lot of money” from any sale.

Now, it seems like President Biden has other plans. According to Wall Street Journal sources, TikTok’s forced sale to Oracle and Walmart has been put on hold “indefinitely”. The step comes as Biden reviews past efforts to handle security risks from Chinese technology companies. While the officials haven’t ruled out a sale, it might happen under different terms or might not happen at all.

The Biden administration might make a decision on TikTok soon. The government is yet to offer a formal response to TikTok’s legal challenge against the divestiture on February 18. We are yet to see what the official stance will be.

TikTok is said to be in talks with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) to resolve security concerns. It is being reported that an alternative to a sale might involve sending data to a “trusted” third party in a bid to combat the allegations of sending Americans’ information to the Chinese government. However, the Chinese government would prevent TikTok parent ByteDance from exporting the algorithms the app uses to recommend videos.

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Oracle challenges Microsoft to acquire TikTok’s US business: Report

Posted on by Prakhar Khanna

Microsoft is confirmed to be in talks to purchase the US arm of TikTok. Now, a new report from Financial Times claims that Oracle could purchase TikTok‘s US business. The news comes after the Trump administration ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok’s US operations within 90 days.

According to the report, Oracle has held preliminary talks with TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance and it is seriously considering purchasing the app’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The company is said to be working “with a group of US investors that already own a stake in ByteDance, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital.”

Microsoft now has a serious contender in the race to acquire TikTok’s US operations. To recall, Twitter was also said to have held early-stage talks with TikTok. However, there were concerns about the company’s ability to finance the deal.

Source: Financial Times

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Hated one way or another: Notches & Co. | #PNWeekly 298

Posted on by Jules Wang

On this week's show: Huawei, Xiaomi, Apple and Acer have new hardware, Facebook has newly-revealed problems around the same old concerns and notches, people, notches, what more do you want?

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In-Depth: five of the biggest acquisitions in mobile technology

Posted on by Jules Wang

Every so often, you see that X company acquired Y company for hundreds of millions of dollars. Every so often, you’ll see that number climb into the billions.Last week we saw LinkedIn get snatched up by Microsoft for some $26.2 billion. Does Microsoft want a social networking platform for blue collar types that badly? We know that there have to be sensical synergies for the deal to happen, but come on! $26.2 billion? What kind of returns are these companies expecting and when do ...

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Java code in Android ruled fair use (again), Oracle to appeal

Posted on by Jules Wang

What’s said to be billions of dollars will not go to Oracle because of today’s federal jury ruling.All ten members of the panel agreed that Google’s appropriation of 37 Java APIs in its development of Android fell under the “fair use” clause of copyright law.Shortly after the verdict, Google stated that:Today’s verdict that Android makes fair use of Java APIs represents a win for the Android ecosystem, for the Java programming ...

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Oracle blames Android for deep cuts in licensing revenue

Posted on by Jules Wang

Java is running hot between Oracle and Google as does the retrial over whether the latter’s parent company, Alphabet, should pay licensing fees for the development platform or legally claim fair use and owe nothing.Oracle’s co-CEO Safra Catz testified in San Francisco district court that Google’s decision to open up Android for manufacturers to develop meant a severe drop in its Java API licensing revenues.Pre-Android era, Samsung paid $40 million per agreement to Oracle — ...

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Oracle and Google head into Android Java retrial

Posted on by Jules Wang

“After an earlier run at settling this case failed, the court observed that some cases just need to be tried. This case apparently needs to be tried twice.”That’s what a US District Court judge in San Francisco said after settlement talks broke down between Oracle, the company that owns the Java API, and Google, which used JavaScript in building its Android operating system.The first trial, dating back to 2012, ended in a mistrial as a hung jury couldn’t decide whether Google’s fair use argument ...

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Google Nexus 5 gets Android 4.4.1, iPhone 5S Touch ID complaints & more – Pocketnow Daily

Posted on by Jaime Rivera

Watch today’s Pocketnow Daily as we talk about Google’s new enhancements to Google+, which are still not enough for most of us to consider making this our social network. Oracle and Google follow the news as rumors have it that their legal issues are about to return to the scene over the Java API used to develop Android apps. AT&T then surprises us with some new contract changes that actually benefit customers. The iPhone 5S takes the spotlight next as customers begin to complain about the reliability of Touch ID. We end today’s show talking about the Nexus 5, Android ...

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Oracle’s Java API appeal could end up very costly for Google and Android

Posted on by Stephen Schenck

It’s been a couple weeks since we last brought you news of a lawsuit between some smartphone heavyweights, so clearly we’re long overdue. This time, we’re returning to a case that initially seemed like it was all wrapped-up, but the appeals process now threatens to turn things on their head, with the chance that Google could suddenly find itself on the hook for a lot of many owed to Oracle. Back last May,

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