The British investment company Centricus has expressed interest in a proportional Tik Tok takeover. Is the big deal with the US-American software company Oracle still in doubt? A classification of events.
Actually, the future of Tik Tok seemed to have been clarified for the time being. At the end of September 2020, US President Donald Trump had agreed to a deal with the software company Oracle and the retail chain Walmart.
Tik Tok was and is to become a “brand new company” based in the USA to protect user data in the future. The company’s connection to China and its Chinese parent company Bytedance is to disappear.
But now the British investment company Centricus is apparently squeezing in once again. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company has made an offer to Tik Tok for a share of the company.
Centricus apparently shows interest in a Tik Tok takeover
According to the agreement, Centricus wants to be involved in the establishment of the planned new holding company. The investment company will be in contact with Zhang Yiming, CEO of the Tik Tok parent company Bytedance.
Exact details of the Centricus offer are not yet available. According to the Wall Street Journal, however, it says that the London-based company is open to further participation by existing investors and US companies.
According to the Journal, a copy of the offer is available to the newspaper. In contrast, a Bytedance spokesperson also stated that the company “is not conducting or has not conducted any talks with Centricus regarding Tik Tok”.
Of course, we can only speculate about what is now true.
Does the Tik Tok deal with Oracle still fall through?
But if Centricus really shows interest in Tik Tok and is in talks with Bytedance, the future of the short video app might look different than initially planned.
In fact, Oracle and Walmart together should receive 20 percent of Tik Tok. Oracle, with a 12.5 percent share, will be responsible for hosting all US user data and backing up the corresponding computer systems.
So either Centricus could slip into this deal and buy the company’s shares for Oracle and Walmart or be interested in acquiring the remaining 80 percent of Bytedance.
US President Donald Trump has not yet commented on the offer. So we have to wait and see if Centricus’ interest is serious and if another deal for the US politics and Bytedance would be possible at all.
Before Trump approved the deal with Oracle and Walmart, Microsoft was long considered a big favorite for the Tik Tok takeover. Twitter had also briefly entered the poker game. But all these plans had finally come to nothing.
So the interest expressed does not necessarily have to lead to a result.
