The deal to form a new company TikTok Global by Bytedance, Oracle and Walmart has been approved by President Donald Trump “in concept” and awaits the formal approval from his administration. However, president’s narratives of the new company “has nothing to do with China” seems to contradict with Bytedance public statement – it is an outright owner of TikTok Global and investors – Oracle and Walmart – will be given a combined 20% stake through a launch of pre-IPO. Whichever the truth is, the ban on TikTok was delayed for one week by the Commerce Department. On the other side, WeChat is in a similar position as a US Federal court halted the ban in the face of a lawsuit filed by a group of Chinese lawyers, the US WeChat User Alliance, arguing the restriction was “too broad”.
