With barely hours to go for a full-fledged ban, US President Donald Trump has agreed in principle for the highly anticipated Oracle-Wallmart deal with China-based ByteDance for the US operations of its viral sensation app Tiktok.
President Trump had signed an executive order last month which allowed a total of 90 days for ByteDance to find a suitor for its TikTok operations in the USA. Even though the US administration was pushing for total disinvestment, the current deal is more in line with a strategic partnership with higher stakes held by the Chinese owner’s American investors.
“I have given the deal my blessing, if they get it done, that’s okay too, if they don’t, that’s fine too,” Trump told reporters at the White House yesterday. He further added that the deal will create 25,000 jobs and that the new US version of TikTok “will have nothing to do with China.”
Even though the US President referred to a $5 billion fund to be set up by Oracle and Walmart to educate young Americans, ByteDance commented that it was unaware of any such clause in the deal.
As part of the deal, a new company called TikTok Global will own the short video app’s US operations. Oracle will take a 12.5 percent stake in the new form and will facilitate storing its US user data on its cloud to comply with US national security requirements. Walmart is expected to take a 7.5 percent stake in TikTok Global.
The general understanding, one which cannot be derived from the lack of details on the structure of the deal suggests that TikTok’s US investors will hold the rest of the shares in the US-based TikTok Global.
Both Oracle and Walmart have confirmed about the deal through their official channels.
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