BYTEDANCE will not sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft or Oracle, nor will the company give the source code to any U.S. buyers, CGTN reported yesterday, citing sources.

Microsoft on Sunday said ByteDance will not be selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to the company.

“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Another bidder for the wildly popular social media platform, Oracle, is reportedly gaining the upper hand as its negotiations for TikTok’s U.S. operations have intensified in recent days, according to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Oracle is going to be picked as TikTok’s “trusted tech partner” in the U.S., the report said.

However, CGTN Digital has learned from sources that ByteDance will also not sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to Oracle. ByteDance has declined to comment on this matter by press time.

U.S. President Donald Trump set a deadline last month for TikTok to be sold to a U.S. company by Sept. 15 or face a ban, citing national security reasons.

China released a revised catalogue of technologies that are subject to export bans or restrictions at the end of August, which means that ByteDance may have to obtain a license from the government to proceed with TikTok’s sale to an American company.

ByteDance boasts a number of cutting-edge technologies in artificial intelligence and other spheres, and some technologies may have a close bearing on the adjusted catalogue.

TikTok filed a lawsuit following Trump’s executive order. “We do not take suing the government lightly,” TikTok said in a blog post. “However, we feel we have no choice but to take action to protect our rights.”

Prompted by a series of changes to the company’s structure “as a result of the Trump administration’s action to push for a sell-off of the U.S. business,” TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned just months after becoming chief executive of the Chinese video-sharing app.

Meanwhile, U.S. media NBC News reported that TikTok has reached an agreement to partner with software giant Oracle.

ByteDance and Oracle still face several hurdles in completing a deal. First, they will need to win approval from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, an interagency group that is tasked with overseeing foreign investments in the U.S. TikTok spokesperson Hilary McQuaide declined to comment.

The short-form video app burst into popular culture in the past few years, becoming one of the few recent social media upstarts to offer a credible rival to U.S. giants like Facebook and Snapchat. The app, which gives users the ability to create short videos matched to sound or music, has created its own generation of celebrities and countless dance trends.

Walmart has also expressed interest in investing in TikTok and said in a statement Sunday that it is continuing discussions with ByteDance leadership.

(SD-CGTN)