President Trump agrees to a deal between software company Oracle, supermarket chain Walmart and TikTok. With that, the imminent download ban of the video app, which would take effect at midnight, has been postponed until September 27.
“I gave the deal my blessing,” Trump said last night. With a ‘yes’ from Trump, the deal is a lot closer, but not yet completed. For example, the US has yet to give official permission and the question is whether China will agree. So you still have a week for that.
“We are delighted that the deal will address the US government’s security concerns,” said TikTok interim chief Vanessa Pappas. According to her, the proposal meets the requirements set by the government.
US user data
As part of the deal, Oracle will provide US user data. That was a demand from President Trump. He feared that the Chinese government could access the data of American TikTok users, as long as it is not in the hands of a party in the US. The app itself has always contradicted this.
When everyone agrees and the signatures are in place, Oracle and Walmart together own 20 percent of ‘TikTok Global’. According to Bloomberg, TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance wants to value the video app at $ 60 billion, forcing the two US companies to put in $ 12 billion together. That’s a lot more than the $ 30 billion that Microsoft reportedly was willing to pay for an acquisition.
In a statement, TikTok Global is referred to by Oracle as “an independent US company,” the majority of which is owned by US parties. According to The Wall Street Journal, this can be explained as ByteDance is 40 percent owned by US investors. As a result, TikTok is indirectly owned for more than 50 percent by American investors.
25,000 jobs and money for treasury
The headquarters of ‘TikTok Global’ will be located in the US and the company will go public within 12 months. Oracle promises that the group will create 25,000 new jobs. The question is what kind of jobs are involved; this may include content moderators, who typically don’t earn as well as developers.
The software giant also promises to pay “more than $ 5 billion in tax dollars” to the Treasury Department. It is unclear exactly what this means. According to Trump, this amount would go to a new education fund for history lessons, so that children can “learn the real history of our country.”
But according to Bloomberg news agency, the company can decide for itself in which the money is invested. That is not so clearly stated in Oracle’s statement. Incidentally, ByteDance says it knows nothing about this amount of money.