Trump gives conceptual blessing to TikTok deal

ARS Technica reports the TikTok saga may be coming to an end as US President Donald Trump approved the deal "in concept." After Microsoft failed to secure a deal with Chinese developer ByteDance, a consortium of Oracle and Walmart emerged as the victor. ByteDance was forced to sell TikTok's U.S. operations after the Trump Administration deemed it a national security threat.

As part of the unusual deal, the companies have agreed to donate $5 billion to a Texas-based educational fund, thereby meeting Trump's demand that the US gets a cut from the deal. Oracle will become the "trusted technology provider" of TikTok and the consortium will get a minority stake in the newly created TikTok Global.

The federal government does not generally receive a commission or cut of any merger or acquisition, other than any taxes that may be due, which are paid to the Treasury as required.

According to Bloomberg, the companies have agreed to donate $5 billion to an educational fund based in Texas to meet this particular term. "They’re going to be setting up a very large fund," Trump said. "That’s their contribution that I’ve been asking for."

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— TikTok_Comms (@tiktok_comms) September 19, 2020