WASHINGTON: U.S. investors, including Oracle Corp, are set to hold at least a 60% stake in TikTok, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The U.S. Treasury submitted a revised term sheet to ByteDance late Wednesday to address national security concerns that was agreed to by the Chinese parent of TikTok, the source said.
The new company, called TikTok Global, will have a majority of American directors and a U.S. chief executive. Oracle has agreed to take a 20% stake in the company when it is created and Walmart Inc is also expected to take an equity stake and have a seat on TikTok Global’s board, the source said.
It is still not clear if U.S. President Donald Trump will sign off on the detail.
Trump said he Wednesday he did not like the idea of U.S. investors holding a minority stake. “Conceptually, I can tell you that I don’t like that,” Trump said.
U.S. investors currently have a 40% stake in ByteDance, including Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic. After Oracle and Walmart invested in TikTok Global, U.S. investors would own a significant majority, the source said.
While TikTok is best known for dancing videos that go viral among teenagers, U.S. officials are concerned user information could be passed to China’s Communist Party government. TikTok, which has as many as 100 million U.S. users, has said it would never share such data with Chinese authorities.
It is not clear what Oracle will pay for its stake. Oracle and Treasury did not immediately comment.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on Thursday that the administration is still looking at details of the deal and whether it meets national security thresholds. Meadows said if TikTok remains predominantly Chinese-run under the Oracle deal, that would not meet President Donald Trump’s objectives.
CNBC and Bloomberg News reported some details of the ByteDance Treasury agreement earlier.
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