President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has given his “blessing” to a proposed agreement for the popular TikTok video publishing app to partner with Oracle and Walmart and form an American company.
WeChat and TikTok Still Available in US; Future Uncertain: Popular Chinese-owned apps WeChat and TikTok narrowly avoided a US government ban on new downloads Sunday night. On Friday, President Trump directed the US Department of Commerce to issue a ban… https://t.co/0tVesPmvS1
— Phone Scoop (@phonescoop) September 21, 2020
Trump has been incisive against Chinese-owned app arguing national security concerns and other data privacy concerns in the most recent episode of conflict that has eaten tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The representative’s support for an agreement comes a day after Commerce announced restrictions that, if applied, would block access to the app for legions of young users.
Trump said that if realized, the deal would lead to the creation of a new company that could be based in Texas.
“I have given my blessing to the agreement”, he noted. “If they succeed, great. If not, it’s fine too.”
The new company would hire at least 25,000 people and contribute $5 billion to a U.S. education fund.
“That’s the contribution I’ve been asking for,” he said.
Chinese-owned app noted that Oracle and Walmart would jointly acquire a 20% stake in the new company in a pre-initial public offering funding round, which Walmart claimed could take place next year.
Oracle would have a 12.5% stake and Walmart of 7.5%, the companies revealed in separate releases.
Under the agreement, Oracle would be responsible for storing all data from U.S. TikTok Users
Walmart noted that it would provide its e-commerce, compliance, payments and other services to the new company.
“We are pleased that TikTok, Oracle, and Walmart’s proposal will address U.S. government security concerns and clear questions about TikTok’s future in the United States“, TikTok said in a statement.
Trump has been demanding that Chinese-owned app‘s U.S. operations be sold to a U.S. company or shut down. Trump also has MeChat, another Chinese-owned app, in his sights.
TikTok claims to have 100 million users in the United States.
