So who will own TikTok now? Depends who you ask
There was confusion Monday (September 21) over who exactly is set to run TikTok now.
Current parent company ByteDance says the video sharing app will be its subsidiary.
But Oracle and Walmart say they and other U.S. investors will have majority control.
Back in mid August Donald Trump gave ByteDance 90 days to sell TikTok or face shutdown in the U.S.
That’s over concerns about the safety of data on 100 million American users.
On Saturday (August 19) he said he supported a proposed deal to keep the app operating in the country.
On Monday, ByteDance said it would it own 80% of TikTok Global, the new company that will control most of the app’s worldwide operations.
It said it was just a ‘rumour’ that U.S. investors would have majority ownership.
And it denied there would be any transfer of algorithms or other technologies.
There was no immediate response from Walmart or Oracle.
Some sources close the deal have sought to reconcile the difference by pointing out that U.S. investors already own 41% of ByteDance.
Count that, and TikTok Global would be indirectly majority-U.S. owned.
One of the sources said that the deal values the app at over 50 billion dollars.
A 5 billion dollar tax payment that TikTok Global is to make to the U.S. is not connected to the deal with Oracle and Walmart, according to ByteDance.
