AsianFin -- The White House at the weekend revealed details of an upcoming deal to keep TikTok operating in the United States.
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A TikTok deal could be signed "in the coming days", and the United States will have control over TikTok’s algorithm in the acquisition of TikTok’s U.S. operation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview on Saturday.
“We are 100% confident that a deal is done. Now that deal just needs to be signed, and the president’s team is working with their Chinese counterparts to do just that,” Leavitt said. She also said Americans would hold six of the seven TikTok board seats.
The data and privacy of the app will be led by U.S. software giant Oracle Corporation, which is chaired by Larry Ellison, a Trump ally and one of the world’s richest people, according to Leavitt."The data and privacy will be led by one of America's greatest tech companies, Oracle, and the algorithm will also be controlled by America as well," the spoeksperson said.
Keavitt made the remarks a day after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Trump that day touted “a very productive call” which led to progross on many issues including approval of the highly anticipated TikTok deal.
“I just completed a very productive call with President Xi of China. We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday.
Trump in the post also said he would meet President Xi on the sidelines of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which is set to be held in South Korea next month, and he is planning a China vist next year.
“I also agreed with President Xi that we would meet at the APEC summit in South Korea, that I would go to China in the early part of next year, and that President Xi would, likewise, come to the United States at an appropriate time,” Trump posted.
Trump in the Oval Office later Friday told reporters that Xi had “approved the TikTok deal,” but added that it still needed to be “signed.” “We look forward to getting that deal closed,” Trump added. “The TikTok deal is well on its way as you know.”
Trump said investors were preparing to finalize the deal and responded the U.S. would retain “very tight control”over TikTok, when pressed whether China would have control over the algorithm, responded that the US would retain “very tight control” over the app.
Trump and Xi failed to come to a final agreement on TikTok during a call Friday, but the two made significant progress toward a deal and more work remains, CNBC cited a White House official later Friday.
An investor consortium including Oracle, Silver Lake, a private equity firm, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz will form a new U.S. entity to control TikTok’s business in the country under a framework that Washington and Beijing are finalizing, the Wall Street Journal last Tuesday cited people familiar with the matter.
Under the proposed terms, the investor group will reportedly own a combined around 80% stake in the TikTok U.S. business and Chinese investors will hold the rest. It was said current U.S.-based ByteDance investors, including Susquehanna, KKR and General Atlantic, will be part of shareholders controlling 80% of TikTok. Under a 2024 U.S. law, TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, must reduce its stake in the U.S. version of the app to under 20% to avoid a ban.
As part of reported arrangement,existing U.S. users need to shift to a new app that TikTok has built and is testing, and TikTok engineers will re-create a set of content-recommendation algorithms for the app, using technology licensed from ByteDance.
The U.S. government will designate a member to the new TikTok company’s board of directors, which is set to be controlled by American members, according to the report.
