https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-bytedance-tiktok-deal-insight/how-bytedances-ceo-balked-at-selling-tiktoks-u-s-business-idUSKBN2660LK

ByteDance founder and CEO Yiming Zhang's decision to drop his pursuit of a sale of TikTok's U.S. operations to Microsoft Corp in favor of a partnership with Oracle Corp was the culmination of weeks of pressure from China's government and the Beijing-based firm's investors, according to people familiar with the deliberations.