Yazılar

Trump team says TikTok U.S. divestiture deal close, Oracle and Silver Lake among investors

/in /tarafından

The White House said Monday that President Donald Trump will soon certify a deal to separate TikTok’s U.S. operations from Chinese parent ByteDance, declaring it compliant with the 2024 divestiture law.

Under the agreement, ByteDance’s stake will fall below 20%, with control shifting to a mix of existing U.S. stakeholders and new investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake. Additional “household name” investors are expected to be announced, according to a senior official.

Key deal terms include:

  • Oracle will provide U.S.-based cloud infrastructure to store all American user data.

  • Prominent U.S. investors such as Lachlan Murdoch, Larry Ellison, and Michael Dell are expected to participate.

  • The U.S. government will not take a board seat or a “golden share” in the new entity.

  • TikTok’s U.S. assets are valued at “many billions of dollars,” though an exact figure is pending.

The Trump administration is confident Beijing has signed off on the framework, though some paperwork still needs to be finalized. China’s embassy in Washington said it welcomed “productive commercial negotiations” that respected both nations’ laws and interests.

TikTok, with 170 million American users, faced a looming ban after Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance to divest U.S. operations by January 2025. Trump previously extended enforcement to mid-December to allow negotiations. His new executive order will add another 120-day pause to give investors and ByteDance time to close the deal.

The agreement marks a rare breakthrough in strained U.S.–China trade relations and could prevent a forced shutdown of one of the world’s most popular social media platforms in America.

SAP offers concessions to EU in effort to ease antitrust concerns

/in /tarafından

SAP, Europe’s largest software maker, has proposed concessions to the European Commission in an attempt to head off a potential antitrust investigation and fines, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The German company dominates the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market, providing software that helps firms manage finances, supply chains, HR, and procurement. SAP has long been under scrutiny from EU regulators following complaints about complex licensing terms, the bundling of applications, and difficulties faced by companies trying to switch to rival suppliers.

According to sources, SAP has submitted a proposal aimed at addressing regulators’ concerns, though details of the remedies were not disclosed. If accepted, SAP could avoid a formal investigation and a penalty that could reach up to 10% of its annual global revenue. Both SAP and the European Commission declined to comment.

The Commission previously circulated a 2022 questionnaire to SAP customers asking about their ability to switch to rival vendors, purchase only specific support services, or migrate from on-premise ERP systems to the cloud. The inquiry also raised questions about whether SAP or Oracle had disparaged competitors.

Potential remedies could include giving customers greater flexibility to purchase individual support contracts and lowering barriers to migration between vendors.

SAP also faces antitrust pressure in the United States: in June it asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling requiring it to face a lawsuit from Teradata, which accused the company of anti-competitive practices.

The EU’s decision on SAP’s concessions will determine whether the company averts another high-profile investigation as regulators increase scrutiny of dominant software vendors.

Oracle appoints Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as co-CEOs, Safra Catz steps aside

/in /tarafından

Oracle announced a surprise leadership shakeup on Monday, naming insiders Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as co-CEOs, replacing longtime chief executive Safra Catz. Catz, who helped transform Oracle into a cloud powerhouse over her 11-year tenure, will remain with the company as vice chair of the board.

Catz’s legacy includes steering Oracle from its roots as a database provider into a global competitor in cloud computing, securing massive AI-related contracts, and driving the company’s market capitalization close to $1 trillion. Shares of Oracle have soared about 85% this year, outpacing rivals Microsoft and Alphabet, buoyed by the AI boom.

  • Mike Sicilia (54) currently oversees Oracle’s cloud-based applications and AI products.

  • Clay Magouyrk (39) manages Oracle’s cloud infrastructure platform, which underpins the company’s AI and data services.

Both executives are well-known to investors, and analysts say their promotion highlights cloud and industry solutions as Oracle’s main growth engines. Evercore ISI noted that with co-founder Larry Ellison staying on as CTO and Catz as executive vice chair, the leadership transition should be smooth.

Oracle is currently central to U.S. data security discussions, hosting TikTok’s U.S. user data on its cloud systems. The company also recently signed one of the largest cloud deals in history with OpenAI, worth an estimated $300 billion in computing power over five years.

Safra Catz, one of the most influential women in tech, first became co-CEO alongside the late Mark Hurd in 2014 after Ellison stepped back from daily operations. Under her leadership, Oracle shares climbed more than 586%. Trained in finance and law, Catz joined Oracle in 1999 after a career on Wall Street and today holds a net worth of $3.3 billion, according to Forbes.

Magouyrk, who joined Oracle from Amazon Web Services in 2014, will receive stock options worth $250 million, while Sicilia, who came via Oracle’s acquisition of Primavera Systems, will receive $100 million in stock options.

The co-CEO model, while less common, is being adopted by several global firms, including investment giant KKR and, briefly, Intel. For Oracle, the dual leadership underscores the scale of its ambitions as cloud and AI reshape the tech landscape.