At the same time the “Wall Street Journal” reported that Bytedance will keep the remaining 80 percent of Tiktok Global. But: Since American investors such as the start-up financiers Sequoia and General Atlantic again held about 40 percent of Bytedance, one could speak of a US majority at Tiktok, insiders explained to the paper.The new construct could have the advantage that no approval of the Chinese government would be necessary for the deal. Trump, for his part, had just a few days ago rejected a deal in which Oracle would act as Tiktok’s technology partner with a minority stake. The Department of Commerce then initiated a countdown to kick Tiktokout of the American app stores. Tiktok and Bytedance filed a lawsuit against it in Washington.He had previously demanded that the U.S. government should receive some kind of commission because it had brought about the deal.
A few days ago he had announced the formation of a commission to promote patriotic education – the Republican justified this, among other things, by the fact that the historical significance of slavery is currently being overemphasized. In the past, Trump has frequently attracted attention with attacks against the founder and boss of the online retailer, Jeff Bezos. Bezos privately owns the Washington Post newspaper, where Trump is often criticized.President Trump demands that Tiktok be completely controlled by American companies; otherwise the app – for data protection reasons – is to be banned in the USA. To this end, the US business is to be merged into a new company called Tiktok Global, in which the US groups Oracle and Walmart are to hold a combined share of around 20 percent. In principle, the Chinese parent company Bytedance will retain 80 percent of the shares. However, these are to be distributed to existing Bytedanceshareholders, which include the US companies Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic and CoatueManagement. The Americans will thus become a majority shareholder in Tiktok Global and dominate the management and board of directors. It is crucial that the Tiktok technology is to be owned by Tiktok Global.
