A recent report from Reuters has all but given us a clear picture of what the new corporate structure of ‘Tiktok Global’ would look like. The biggest talking point of the report, is the supposed majority shareholding by Bytedance’s US-based investors. The report suggests that these investors, along with Oracle, are set to hold a 60% majority stake in TikTok.
This recent development comes just a week after a report broke out, which suggested that Oracle had potentially outbid Microsoft in securing TikTok’s American business, earlier this week. The announcement was followed by ByteDance outrightly denying the deal, surprising everyone.
Sources close to the recent happenings have reported that the United States Treasury has submitted revised terms and conditions to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance late Wednesday, to clarify upon previously raised questions surrounding national security concerns.
The hugely popular video platform faced questions regarding national security from both the U.S and India, who accused the Chinese government of using such apps to harvest critical personal information from its users. These concerns led to the app being banned in India, along with a catalog of other applications originating from China. U.S. too, has asked ByteDance to divest its stake in the app, and has signed an executive order to ban any transactions with the company post 20th September, effectively setting up a deadline.
However, now, TikTok is looking to make a comeback within the U.S with its new company ‘TikTok Global’, which is set to have a board consisting of American directors and chief executive.
It has also been reported that retail giants Walmart is all set to join Oracle in holding an equity stake in TikTok Global, with Oracle agreeing to take up a big 20% stake in the company. This recent development is expected to calm President Trump’s concerns surrounding American companies and nationals holding minority stakes in TikTok. However, it is still not clear whether this deal will eventually receive President Trump’s final signature or not.
The details of the deal are yet to be made clear to the public, and it has not been revealed exactly how much Oracle is expected to pay for its stake in the company, but all eyes are glued to recent proceedings as the company that has been seen taking the center stage in recent controversies is all set to undergo a skin change and attempt at making a comeback for its U.S audience.
