Oracle’s top lobbyist in Washington met privately with Senate aides this spring about the company’s data housing deal with TikTok, after the House passed a bill in mid-March that would effectively ban social media apps in the United States.
Oracle will serve as a data center for TikTok users in the United States. The House bill would require TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to sell the social media app or face an eventual ban in the United States.
Oracle EVP said it had “four meetings to discuss primarily technical mitigations” for the data storage project. Ken Gluecktold CNBC on Monday about a previously unreported meeting.
Glueck and a new disclosure report say Oracle relied on two lobbying firms, Fierce Government Relations and Polaris Government Relations, to set up the meetings.
He said Glueck led discussions with staff from the Senate Commerce and Intelligence Committees. Two of the meetings were held in person and two on Zoom, he added.
Glueck said Oracle is not lobbying for or against the TikTok bill and is only making the meeting regarding the filing requirements public to ensure transparency.
Market analysts say Oracle could face financial headwinds if TikTok is banned.
“In a scenario where TikTok is banned or shut down, Oracle would likely lose the most OCI.” [Oracle Cloud Infrastructure] customer. This would be a negative, you can’t sugar coat it.” Analyst As stated in a UBS research note: TikTok and Oracle’s deal reportedly has value 1 billion dollars.
The Commerce Committee is chaired by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia). He heads the information committee.
The original House bill stalled briefly in the Senate, but a similar bill passed the House on Saturday and already has significant support in the Senate.
Cantwell and Warner said it could take up to a year for TikTok to be safely divested from ByteDance if President Joe Biden signs the ban.
News of the meeting was announced after TikTok’s lobbyist reportedly Oracle complained to lawmakers that it did not do enough to lobby against the bill. TikTok has spent millions of dollars on advertising and other lobbying efforts to prevent the bill from passing Congress.
Oracle paid Fierce $90,000 and Polaris $80,000 in the first three months of this year, records show. These were the only two outside companies that Oracle paid to focus on this issue this quarter. The disclosures said the services included providing “technical assistance” to Congressional offices on the TikTok bill.
The Internal Revenue Service defines this type of assistance as a member of Congress seeking guidance from industry experts, especially when a bill is being considered in Congress.
Oracle has one of the most powerful internal lobbying bases in Washington, where it reportedly spends more than $2.4 million annually to influence policy, according to disclosures. This included internal lobbying on TikTok, among a dozen other issues.
