United States President Donald Trump on Saturday announced that he was in favor of a deal -- in concept -- that would enable the wildly-popular Chinese short video app TikTok to continue doing business in the U.S., even as his decision seemed to contradict with his earlier directive for China's ByteDance to sell its video platform.
The agreement will allow Walmart and Oracle to cooperate with TikTok, giving the Chinese app another shot at operating in the U.S. and saving the group from total elimination, CNBC reported.
According to Trump, he has given the deal his "blessing," saying that if things work out between Walmart, Oracle and ByteDance then good, if not -- "It's okay, too," CNBC quoted the president as saying during a briefing with members of the press at the White House. "I approved the deal in concept," he pointed out.
TikTok owner ByteDance was scrambling to steer clear of a clampdown on the app after the U.S. Commerce Department bared on Friday that it would restrict updates and new downloads to TikTok by Sunday.
U.S. officials were worried that the personal information of around a hundred million Americans that use the Chinese platform was being handed over to the country's Communist Party.
An Aug. 14 ultimatum signed by the President gave ByteDance 90 days to divest its app. The deal that was disclosed Saturday, however, is intended as a collaboration rather than a sale.
Moments following his comments, Oracle said it was selected as TikTok's Cloud infrastructure provider and a minority stakeholder with a 12.5 percent ownership. TikTok confirmed the Redwood Shores, California-based role and clarified it was partnering with Walmart on a commercial deal.
Walmart confirmed it has indefinitely given the green light to a 7.5 percent acquisition of TikTok, chief executive officer Doug McMillon serving as one of the five members of the newly-formed group's board.
Meanwhile, TikTok and mother firm ByteDance filed a lawsuit on Friday against the Trump government in an attempt to parry a prohibition on new downloads of the platform scheduled to be enforced on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported.
In the lawsuit, TikTok claimed that the Trump administration's move to restrict new downloads of the app is illegal and infringes on freedom of expression.
The Beijing-headquartered ByteDance has been in discussions with multiple American firms in the past weeks, trying to strike a proposition to form a new company - TikTok Global - to address the Trump administration's concerns about threats to U.S. national security, The Verge reported.
