According to sources briefed on the matter at hand, Oracle Corp has had preliminary talks with ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, and was seriously considering purchasing the app’s operations in the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

Earlier this month, Twitter Inc had expressed an interest to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operation and had approached ByteDance for the same.

Microsoft Corp is still the favorite to clinch a deal with ByteDance.

Neither ByteDance, TikTok or Oracle immediately responded to requests for comments.