Trump expected to rule on TikTok deal in 24-36 hours, Oracle to take 20% stake

President Donald Trump is expect to decide on TikTok’s fate in the U.S. in the next 24-36 hours, sources told CNBC’s David Faber. 

Walmart is expected to partner with Oracle in a deal where the latter would own roughly 20% of the social media app, according to the sources.

Trump has been meeting with Cabinet members and other advisers as he decides whether or not to approve the deal, according to others familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. There are mixed points of views among his advisers, who include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, one of the people said.

Trump said Wednesday he objected to the idea that Beijing-based ByteDance would retain a majority stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations. Still, people familiar with the matter say the ownership stake percentages haven’t been a topic of negotiation and are unlikely to change.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is expected to have a seat on the newly formed board of directors for TikTok’s U.S. operations. Walmart didn’t immediately respond for comment.

 “From the standpoint of ByteDance we don’t like that,” Trump said Wednesday of the Chinese company retaining a majority stake in the business. “I mean, just conceptually I can tell you I don’t like that.”

A deal that keeps ByteDance as a majority stakeholder in TikTok’s U.S. operations will contradict Trump’s earlier pronouncements that the only remedy to a U.S. ban is a sale to a U.S.-based company. TikTok selected Oracle’s offer to be a “trusted technology partner” and a minority stake holder earlier this week over Microsoft’s offer, which had been in talks to acquire all of TikTok’s U.S. assets, as well as in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“I set a date of around Sept. 15 at which point it’s going to be out of business in the United States,” Trump said in an Aug. 3 news conference. “So it’ll close down on Sept. 15 unless Microsoft or somebody else is able to buy it and work out a deal, an appropriate deal, so that the Treasury of the United States gets a lot of money.”

Trump also backed off his desire to demand “key money” from allowing the transaction yesterday, saying his lawyers told him it was illegal.

“Amazingly I find that you’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said. “I said, ‘What kind of a thing is this?’ If they’re willing to make big payments to the government, they’re not allowed because there’s no way of doing that from a — there’s no legal path to do that.” 

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