Trump has Approved TitkTok’s Deal, Suspending the Ban from US App Stores for a Week

United States President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he has approved the deal between ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, and Oracle – averting the decision to ban on TikTok and other Chinese apps from US app stores – which was to take effect on Sunday.

The approved deal will see ByteDance continue to be the majority owner of TikTok – and will include a $5 billion fund for United States education.

Trump says he has “given the deal my blessing” and “if they get it done, that’s great. If they don’t, that’s okay, too.”

Sources familiar to the matter says the decision to ban Chinese apps from US app stores has been suspended by a week to allow the deal to sail through.

Apart from Oracle, Trump says the deal will also include Wal-Mart and that “the security will be 100 percent. They’ll be using separate clouds and very, very powerful security.”

The developments were confirmed by TikTok through a statement which said part of the proposal is that “Oracle will become our trusted technology provider, responsible for hosting all US user data and securing associated computer systems to ensure US national security requirements are fully satisfied,”

The firm also said they “are currently working with Wal-Mart on a commercial partnership as well. Both companies will take part in a TikTok Global pre-IPO financing round in which they can take up to a 20% cumulative stake in the company.”

Of the 20%, Oracle will take 12.5% while Wal-Mart wil have 7.5% stake. ByteDance will get the remaining 80%.

The deal “we will also maintain and expand TikTok Global’s headquarters in the US, while bringing 25,000 jobs across the country,” said TikTok.