Sunday, September 27, 2020

TikTok deal unlikely to proceed

An editorial column published by China's influential Global Times says the TikTok will be blocked by China to prevent ByteDance technologies from falling into the US' hands to protect its national security and the interests of Chinese enterprises. 

On Sunday evening, a U.S. district court granted a last minute reprieve to TikTok just hours before Apple and Google were poised to block any further downloads of TikTok from their app stores. The court left standing restrictions imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce set to come into effect on November 12th that could terminate TikTok service in the United States after that date.

Regardless of the U.S. court decision, China's Global Times said the proposed deal with Oracle and Walmart will be blocked in Beijing.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1202271.shtml

TikTok Global to be secured in Oracle's cloud data centers

 President Trump announced his preliminary support for a deal for ByteDance to establish a new company in the United States to run TikTok operations. Under the new deal, Oracle and Walmart together will 20% of the newly formed TikTok Global business, which is later expected to complete an IPO on a U.S. exchange.

Highlights of the deal:

  • TikTok Global will be responsible for providing all TikTok services to users in United States and most of the users in the rest of the world.
  • Oracle qill serve TikTok’s secure cloud provider.
  • TikTok Global will be majority owned by American investors, including Oracle and Walmart. 
  • TikTok Global's Board of Diretors will consist of five people, four of whom must be Americans.
  • All the TikTok technology will be in possession of TikTok Global, and comply with U.S. laws and privacy regulations. 
  • All American data on TikTok must be quickly moved to Oracle’s Generation 2 Cloud data centers.
  • Walmart will bring its omni-channel retail capabilities including its Walmart.com assortment, eCommerce marketplace, fulfillment, payment and measurement-as-a-service advertising service.
  • TikTok Global will pay more than 5 billion in new tax dollars to the U.S. Treasury.
  • TikTok Global, together with Oracle, SIG, General Atlantic, Sequoia, Walmart and Coatue will create an educational initiative to develop and deliver an AI-driven online video curriculum to teach children from inner cities to the suburbs, a variety of courses from basic reading and math to science, history and computer engineering.

It is believed the deal requires clearance from the government of China.