ByteDance, Oracle at loggerheads over terms of TikTok agreement

  • China's ByteDance was racing to avoid a crackdown on TikTok after the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it would block new downloads and updates to the app
21 Sep, 2020

(New York) ByteDance and Oracle Corp issued conflicting statements on Monday over the terms of a deal they agreed with the White House over the weekend, casting doubt over President Donald Trump's preliminary blessing of the agreement.

China's ByteDance was racing to avoid a crackdown on TikTok after the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it would block new downloads and updates to the app come Sunday. U.S. officials had expressed concern that the personal data of as many as 100 million Americans that use the app was being passed on to China's Communist Party government.

ByteDance said on Monday that it will own 80% of TikTok Global, a newly created U.S. company that will own most of the app's operations worldwide. ByteDance added that TikTok Global will become its subsidiary.

Oracle and Walmart, which have agreed to take stakes in TikTok Global of 12.5% and 7.5% respectively, had said on Saturday that majority ownership of TikTok would be in American hands. On Monday, Oracle said ByteDance will have no ownership in TikTok Global.

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