Quick, name a more improbable merger. https://t.co/jtNC8IhvOs

— Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) August 18, 2020

The US deploys their one cyberweapon against TikTok that China can not yet match - the awesome power of Oracle to buy a product then run it into the ground and make it uselesshttps://t.co/Kp27jW76WO

— Liam O ? (@liamosaur) August 18, 2020

This actually makes a lot of sense if you think of Oracle as a law firm that just happens to sell software. https://t.co/CvKzyuWYyX

— let me know how i can be helpful (@vcstarterkit) August 18, 2020

One advantage Oracle could have is being more flexible on how much they buy. Microsoft is going to push to own as much as possible, beyond the U.S. business. Oracle may entice ByteDance and its investors with a different approach.  $msft

— Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin) August 18, 2020

I did not see this coming, probably because I was thinking about business model vs politics. Oracle’s Ellison has a good relationship with Trump. https://t.co/KfwjVzxuvg

— Sarah Frier (@sarahfrier) August 18, 2020

Clever strategy to get teens into ERP systems while they’re young. https://t.co/ebhruS9yOM

— Aaron Levie (@levie) August 18, 2020

Truly a victory for American free-market capitalism if a pro-Trump billionaire acquires the company Trump forced to be sold https://t.co/uYYXw9dpzY

— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) August 18, 2020

I for one welcome a TikTokJDK https://t.co/sSCCVZA6Lf

— Hadi Hariri (@hhariri) August 18, 2020

TikTok is the daily destination for millions of people to express themselves creatively. We have launched a new information hub to shine a light on the facts, and serve as a source of truth to address the misinformation about TikTok. https://t.co/3dfEibdNsB

— TikTok_Comms (@tiktok_comms) August 17, 2020

Oracle has been *the* leading company behind the scenes trying to destroy #Section230. Imagine what havoc that would create if they owned a massive user generated content platform. https://t.co/0ihaEbbvwJ

— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) August 18, 2020

Yes, because no company has its finger on the pulse of the youth market quite like (checks notes) (checks notes again) (seriously?) (sighs) Oracle. https://t.co/wJapYXiuAY

— Ed Bott (@edbott) August 18, 2020

Enter Oracle (who loves messaging with Microsoft). They need to jumpstart their cloud biz. TikTok would help. General Atlantic and Sequoia are backing. $orcl

— Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin) August 18, 2020

This has to be Oracle messing with Microsoft. https://t.co/52UxhgnMmx

— Nick Wingfield (@nickwingfield) August 18, 2020

I can confirm FT's report that Oracle is interested in TikTok in conjunction with some U.S. VC firms who are already investors in TikTok -- and add that talks are ongoing and have progressed in recent days. https://t.co/MxtqiOTdjh

— Alex Sherman (@sherman4949) August 18, 2020

And now, somehow, being bought by @Microsoft actually seems cool. ? https://t.co/pyKPQAUvJz

— Nikki Sunstrum 〽️ (@nikkisunstrum) August 18, 2020

Oracle enters race to buy TikTok’s US operations working with a group of US investors that already own a stake in ByteDance, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital

Ellison is one of the few people in Silicon Valley who has openly supported Trump
https://t.co/pr5I1dLHML

— Madhav Chanchani (@madhavchanchani) August 18, 2020

Here's what you need to know about state of play with TikTok and why Oracle is suddenly in the running.

There are really *four* players in this deal, the buyer, ByteDance management, ByteDance investors and the U.S. government... (thread)

— Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin) August 18, 2020

everyone who’s (rightfully) pointing out this is dumb as hell better get pumped for some kind of tiktok/oracle “””integration””” that’s inevitably going to happen within the next year https://t.co/SZ4cAN9rls

— shoshana wodinsky (@swodinsky) August 18, 2020

Future headlines:

IBM interested in buying TikTok

AWS interested in buying TikTok

RackSpace interested in buying TikTok

Reddit interested in buying TikTok

Pepperidge Farms interested in buying TikTok

— Brad Sams (@bdsams) August 18, 2020

because when I think relational databases, first thing that comes to mind is... https://t.co/4Yc9kUqIxs

— Ari Levy (@levynews) August 18, 2020

This is super weird. https://t.co/dj5opj66bq

— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) August 17, 2020

This is actually a great thing, like all of Oracle's purchases, they will move to charge exorbitant fees until the customer base is destroyed. ? https://t.co/NQNAvCbKl2

— Rodney Caston (@RodneyCaston) August 18, 2020

“Instead of us stopping the bad shit we do (like not paying songwriters) we will start a twitter account.” https://t.co/EaqdikNsDJ

— David C Lowery (@davidclowery) August 18, 2020

Who's next? Salesforce, Slack, SAP, Adobe?
"Oracle enters race to buy TikTok’s US operations"https://t.co/9DHItjrOVg pic.twitter.com/bkoQaLyXvg

— Subrahmanyam KVJ (@SuB8u) August 18, 2020

On a web page titled "The Last Sunny Corner of the Internet," TikTok maintained it was setting the record straight about the platform. https://t.co/ukCfAwuVLy

— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) August 18, 2020

Influencers: time to read up on per-core licensing models. https://t.co/7fEW6nQqQM

— Jonathan LaCour (@cleverdevil) August 18, 2020

Oracle enters race to buy @tiktok_us’ operations US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, sources tell @FT. @Oracle working with a group of US investors that already own a stake in ByteDance, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, the people added. https://t.co/TpkdgV2hpk

— Eunice Yoon (@onlyyoontv) August 18, 2020

Mmm yes, TikTok will integrate nicely with Oracle’s boomer enterprise software and solutions https://t.co/raXi7LKqTZ

— litquidity (@litcapital) August 18, 2020

Lol, can’t wait for the Oracle’s sales team to get a hold of TiKTok.

“Download our white paper to find out how Oracle TikTok Enterprise can drive 13.75% more revenue for your business!” https://t.co/tkj04LaXg4

— Alan Tsen (@alantsen) August 18, 2020

No big surprise here. Huawei has its @HuaweiFacts account, and an FAQ on its website to accurately respond to the (usually political) rhetoric spread about it. The same PR move makes sense for TikTok.
What a sad state of affairs when companies are forced to do this. https://t.co/mbHYq42YWw

— Andy Boxall (@AndyBoxall) August 17, 2020

Oracle - closely linked to the Trump Administration https://t.co/7xtjxBoD9I

— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) August 18, 2020

When I think of social networking, the first thing that comes to mind is "Oracle." https://t.co/Cp9CT0eTet

— Ian Sherr (@iansherr) August 18, 2020

While Microsoft is probably favored by the government and ByteDance, Microsoft is more likely to box out investors from owning as much as they want after a sale. And the last thing these investors want to do is to give away the crown jewel in a fire sale with one bidder.

— Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin) August 18, 2020

That’s Trump ally Larry Ellison, if it matters, which it does. https://t.co/jKLeskFcRN

— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) August 18, 2020

Next week: Someone explains to Ellison and Catz what TikTok is and how it works. https://t.co/Imk7UFigW8

— Daniel Rubino (@Daniel_Rubino) August 18, 2020

FT Exclusive: Larry Ellison’s Oracle has entered the race to acquire TikTok, the Chinese-owned short video app also sought by Microsoft https://t.co/zob9fsZ5iR pic.twitter.com/CzisLSsoiR

— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) August 18, 2020

Next up: IBM takes over Snap. Releases “Enterprise Edition”. https://t.co/VzGOhLe0nx

— Mike Butcher (@mikebutcher) August 18, 2020

Oracle cloud still chasing that elusive first user https://t.co/1rvvyIMPG7

— Sam Kottler (@samkottler) August 18, 2020

TikTok's latest suitor is Oracle, a company with close ties to the CIA and NSA https://t.co/nrGvErgjMd pic.twitter.com/nt7QntJrYh

— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) August 18, 2020

TikTok's latest suitor is Oracle, a company with close ties to the CIA and NSA https://t.co/nrGvErgjMd pic.twitter.com/dfR27PTISu

— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) August 18, 2020

What am I missing here? How does it make ANY sense? https://t.co/kTKC1eqmcv

— Mauro Pagano (@Mautro) August 18, 2020

!?

Oracle enters race to buy TikTok's U.S. operations: FT | Article [AMP] | Reuters https://t.co/pTVjhgX2fE

— neko (@NekoStocks) August 18, 2020