TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, Oracle and the United States’ Treasury Department, have reportedly agreed tentatively to the terms of Oracle’s bid to acquire US operations of TikTok, reported Bloomberg. President Donald Trump is yet to sign on the deal.
According to reports, under the current plan, Oracle is set to acquire a 20% stake in the newly formed entity that will be called TikTok Global, headquartered in the US with an independent board that would be approved by the US government.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Bytedance’s top US investors, Oracle Corp and possibly Walmart would hold at least a 60% stake in TikTok's US. operations. Walmart, which is also hoping to be a part of the deal, if successful, would see its CEO Doug McMillon, get a seat on TikTok Global's board.
ByteDance has been trying to win US governemnt's approval for a deal that would ensure that the Chinese parent company remains a majority shareholder of TikTok in the US, while Oracle would have a minority holding. However, Trump said on Wednesday that he is opposed to ByteDance retaining majority ownership of TikTok.
The current terms of the deal aim to protect the data of US citizens from falling into Chinese hands. These terms include 20 pages of detailed provisions over data and national security. It is also to be noted that everyone on the board of directors will have to be US citizens. The terms of the proposed deal include handing over full access of TikTok’s source code and updates to Oracle to make sure that there are no back doors used by ByteDance to access data on the video-sharing app.
However, Mike Meadows, the White House Chief of Staff, said that the situation was still fluid. "There's no definite proposal that the president's being asked to consider or reject at this point," Meadows told reporters.
CNBC also reported that ByteDance, in an attempt to address ownership concerns said that it is planning to file for an initial public offering (IPO) of global TikTok in the US.
In August, Trump issued an executive order giving ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, 90 days to sell or spin off its business in the US. In the executive order, the President cited the popular-video sharing app as a national threat.
Earlier, Microsoft was in the running to broker a deal with TikTok. However, the talks have failed, and the multinational company has stepped out of the game.