President Trump Gives his ‘Blessing’ to TikTok and Oracle Deal

US President Donald Trump has given the proposed acquisition of TikTok by US based software firm Oracle his blessing, saying that the deal would help to protect the personal data of hundreds of millions of users in the US.

“I have given the deal my blessing,” President Trump told reporters at the White House. “I approve the deal in concept,” he added.

President Trump has repeatedly said that he will ban the Chinese video sharing platform from the US, unless its parent company, ByteDance, sells it to a US based investor. The move comes as part of a concerted push against Chinese owned tech firms by the US government.

Microsoft was believed to be in the driving seat to acquire TikTok and had said that it hoped to conclude discussions over a potential deal by the 15th of September 2020. However, TikTok pulled out of the proposed deal with Microsoft at the eleventh hour, leaving Oracle as the preferred bidder.

The proposed deal with Oracle would see the creation of a new company, named TikTok Global, which would be headquartered in the US. TikTok Global’s board would be comprised of predominantly American directors, as well as having a US based CEO.

Both Oracle and US retail giant Walmart would take large stakes in the new company. Crucially, data of TikTok Global’s users would be stored by Oracle.

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