As of now, the Chinese-based TikTok app remains unavailable in the United States App Store on iPhone, as the company failed to sell itself to a US owner, before last week’s ban came into effect.
However, there is apparently ongoing negotiations to get TikTok under new ownership, which would give it a path back to the App Store. No deal is close to being finalized, yet, though.
NPR is reporting that the White House is directly involved in talks that would see Oracle and a group of outside investors take control of TikTok. Current owner ByteDance would retain a minority stake.
Notably, it seems this deal would see TikTok’s global operations fall under predominantly US ownership, rather than TikTok bifurcating into separate US-based and non-US businesses.
Oracle is already intimately familiar with TikTok and has shown prior interest in partnership. The cloud giant already provides fundamental web infrastructure for TikTok’s backend, and four years ago — under the previous Trump presidency — was in talks for a TikTok takeover in a partnership with Walmart.
Top comment by Ian Grant
Two thoughts... one of the parties not mentioned, except in periphery, in those discussions? Beijing. "Oh, hey, we're going to force you to give up a massive cash cow to American ownership..." Yeah, that's a such a persuasive argument. Especially as Beijing was willing to cede to American market rather than sell the app! (And the "minority ownership" doesn't address the security concerns, does it?)
And the Gilded Felon is suggesting that Larry Ellison, he who noted that AI will ensure "citizens will be on their behavior", is a good owner for TikTok? That's about as clueless as it gets!
Working out the details of the financials is one major roadblock. TikTok is said to be seeking a valuation in the hundreds of billions of dollars, a hefty sum that almost no company can raise the capital for on its own. Trump has previously indicated that the government itself may take a stake, making TikTok a partially nationalised entity. However, it’s unclear whether that is currently a serious proposition.
Regardless, here’s the state of play right now.
For US users of the popular social media shot-form video app, if the app is already downloaded on your phone, iPhone or Android, the app is currently working as normal. However, as it is not available in the App Store, the app cannot be updated, and if deleted, cannot be reinstalled. That also means anyone buying a new phone cannot get TikTok on it.
TikTok remains freely available in all other geographic regions.
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