Trump doesn’t look like he’d rest till he gets what he wants from TikTok.
If you haven’t been following the story, let’s do a quick recap for you.
TikTok got into trouble with the American government.
Sell out or go home.
With Trump’s threat against TikTok, the company was also given a deadline to sell out.
By the 20th of September, TikTok should have sold to an American company.
The Trump administration believes the company is stealing American’s data and sending it to China.
Also, Trump threatened ByteDance.
The threat stated that if TikTok doesn’t sell to an American company, it’d be banned in the U.S.
Following the threat, TikTok did get a good number of potential buyers.
Microsoft, Walmart and Oracle were all TikTok’s potential buyers.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, their offer was rejected by TikTok.
However, they did sabotage their chance by calling TikTok a threat to the national security of America.
The CEO of ByteDance did not like that at all.
The Chinese government also restricted the exportation of all Chinese AI technology.
TikTok eventually decided to go into a partnership with Oracle. As technology partners.
However, they have to wait for the approval of the white house.
ALSO READ: TikTok, Oracle Get Approval As Technology Partners
Now that you’re all caught up, let’s continue.
The American government is doing everything to make sure America owns a large part of TikTok.
TikTok’s decision to make a partner out of Oracle rather than selling out is in a bid to sustain its controlling power.
The company submitted a proposal to the Trump administration, hoping for a positive response.
Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, the Trump administration isn’t buying the idea.
The American government intends to own 50% of the company.
In Trump’s response to the deal, he said just by hearing it, he doesn’t like it.
He also said he doesn’t see himself happy with the deal.
Currently, TikTok’s American investors own 40% of the company.
Here’s the confusing bit.
Zhang Yiming, the CEO of ByteDance, owns just nearly 25%.
The employees of ByteDance own just about 20% of the company. According to The Wall Street Journal.
It might look like Trump is fighting for an equal share of TikTok, but that’s not the case.
Significantly, the administration is fighting for American investors to have a piece of the pie.
Well, from the look of things, it seems more like they want the entire pie to themselves.
They want more than 50% ownership of TikTok.
What a load of stress!
Neither TikTok nor the U.S government looks like they’d quit anytime soon.
With everything Trump is doing, this looks more like Trump vs TikTok.
From the look of things, both parties would have to reconvene.
The current deliberation is as to whether or not TikTok partnering with Oracle would be satisfactory.
We’d be ready to give you the next update on the topic.
But with these two parties, be aware that you can’t predict anything!
And as for Trump’s controversial nature, he’d surely not let this go smoothly.
However, that shouldn’t stop you from subscribing to our newsletter.
Also, we’d love to hear your opinion about Trump and TikTok.
Tell us whose side you’re on.
Let’s talk.
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