Trump Finally Approved TikTok And Oracle's Deal To Operate In The US

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - President of the United States (US) Donald Trump finally approved the deal between TikTok and Oracle corp to operate in the US. Where previously Trump had threatened to ban the operation of the creative short video made in China.

Trump told reporters at the White House that he gave "his blessing" to the deal with Oracle and said US national security issues had been addressed. He also supports TikTok owner ByteDance's decision to accept Oracle's offer with Walmart to create a new company to run this platform in the US.

"I have given that approval with my blessing. If they agree, that's fine, if not, it doesn't matter. The security will be 100 percent. Conceptually, this is very beneficial for America," Trump said as quoted by The Guardian, Tuesday, 22 September.

US shareholders are expected to control 53 percent of TikTok Global, a person briefed on the matter said, while Chinese investors will hold 36 percent. Oracle said it would take a 12.5 percent stake in TikTok Global.

TikTok said under the deal, Oracle and Walmart would take part in TikTok Global's pre-IPO funding round where they could take up to 20 percent of the cumulative stake in the company.

With Trump's statement of support, this will also have implications for banning TikTok on app stores in the US. Where previously, the US Commerce Department said it had postponed the deadline for the ban until 27 September.

ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, also welcomed President Trump's approval. Only this agreement still needs to be approved by the Chinese government in order to reach an agreement that is in line with United States law.

pic.twitter.com/lNW2iWe1rx

- ByteDance (@BytedanceTalk) September 20, 2020

After President Trump's statement, TikTok Interim CEO Vaness Pappas also confirmed that TikTok would survive in the United States. The statement was uploaded via a short video on the company's official Twitter account.

"Oracle is a service provider technology company that will be responsible for hosting all US user data and securing computer systems against US national security requirements," said TikTok.

Meanwhile, according to a Reuters report, the new ByteDance company, which will later be called TikTok Global, will begin to enter the US stock market. The new TikTok company will be completely controlled by Oracle and Walmart and be based in Texas.