President Donald Trump has reportedly approved Oracle’s proposal to invest in TikTok, bringing the entire saga one step closer to a conclusion.
Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Trump said he approved the deal “in concept,” per Bloomberg News. “I have given the deal my blessing,” Trump told reporters. “I approved the deal in concept,” he explained.
The one-time underdog, Oracle won what can be deemed as a complex and unconventional bidding process for TikTok late last Sunday. This comes after the White House touted the popular video-sharing app as a national security threat.
The transaction will allow parent company ByteDance to keep a major portion of TikTok’s assets and proprietary algorithms, while US investors including Oracle will have minority stakes in the newly formed TikTok Global, Bloomberg reports. Back in Aug., Trump demanded that a cut of the transaction should go to the US Treasury.
“We set a date, I set a date, of around September 15th, at which point it’s going to be out of business in the United States,” Trump said at the time. “But if somebody, whether it’s Microsoft or somebody else, buys it, that’ll be interesting,” he told reporters.
The federal government does not usually receive a cut or commission of any acquisition or merger, aside from taxes that may be due, while being paid to the Treasury as required. Bloomberg says the companies have agreed to donate $5 billion to an educational fund in Texas to meet the aforesaid term.
“They’re going to be setting up a very large fund,” Trump said. That’s their contribution that I’ve been asking for,” he added.
The deal needs to be approved by the Treasury Department and the Chinese authorities before it moves forward. It remains to be seen whether or not Trump’s “blessing” will help prevent TikTok from being removed from Apple and Google app stores.
TikTok has released a statement, noting that the proposal by Oracle, Walmart, and TikTok will reserve the security concerns of the US Administration, and she light on TikTok’s future in the country. The statement confirmed that Oracle will “become our trusted technology provider,” hosting all American user data and securing associated computer systems.
