ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was in talks with several people about a buyout of TikTok, adding that he would likely make a decision on the app’s future within 30 next few days.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people about TikTok and there’s a lot of interest in TikTok,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight to Florida.
Earlier in the day, Reuters reported that, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, Donald Trump’s administration was working on a TikTok rescue plan that involved bringing in software company Oracle and a group of external investors to effectively take control of the application’s operations.
Under the deal brokered by the White House, ByteDance, the China-based owner of TikTok, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the basis of TikTok’s internet infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters.
In his comments to journalists, Donald Trump, however, declared that he had not spoken about a purchase of the application to the co-founder and president of Oracle, Larry Ellison.
Asked whether he was preparing a deal with Oracle and other investors to save TikTok, Donald Trump replied: “No, not with Oracle. I have a lot of people talking to me – very important people – about buying it and I will take This decision probably in the next 30 days Congress gave 90 days. If we can save TikTok, I think that would be a good thing.
The sources said terms of a potential deal with Oracle were subject to change. A source said the scope of the discussions was not yet defined and could include US operations and other regions.
ORACLE WOULD HANDLE NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES
On Saturday, National Public Radio reported on negotiations for TikTok’s global operations, citing two people with knowledge of the negotiations. Oracle had no immediate comment.
-The deal being transacted includes participation from ByteDance’s existing US investors, according to the sources. Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Sequoia Capital are among the company’s U.S. backers.
Representatives for TikTok, ByteDance investors General Atlantic, KKR, Sequoia and Susquehanna could not immediately be reached for comment.
Other TikTok acquisition candidates, including the investor group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and another involving Jimmy Donaldson – better known as YouTube star Mr Beast – are not part of the negotiations with Oracle, one of the sources said.
Under the terms of the agreement, Oracle would be responsible for national security matters. TikTok initially struck a deal with Oracle in 2022 to store U.S. users’ information to ease Washington’s concerns about possible Chinese government interference.
TikTok management would remain in place to manage the short-video app, according to one of the sources.
The app, used by 170 million Americans, was temporarily taken offline for users shortly before a law came into effect on January 19 stating that it had to be sold by ByteDance for reasons of national security, under penalty of being prohibited.
After taking office a day later, Donald Trump signed an executive order to delay for 75 days the implementation of the law, put in place after American authorities warned that ByteDance risked using the data of Americans to ill-advised.
(Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles, Nandita Bose aboard Air Force One, Kanishka Singh and Jeff Mason in Washington; with Milana Vinn, French version Benjamin Mallet)
