Update: But then a related source told Forbes that Oracle did not know why Chairman Larry Ellison revealed the TikTok board of directors, but Sun Zhengyi will not be on the board.

Previously reported

On Wednesday, local time, the American Fox Business Channel anchor Maria Bartiromo (Maria Bartiromo) quoted the chairman of Oracle as saying that if the transaction between Oracle and TikTok is successful, SoftBank founder and billionaire Sun Zhengyi may join the TikTok board. .

According to previous media reports, after the TikTok transaction is successful, the newly established TikTok Global board of directors in the United States will consist of 5 members.

Battiromo said on the Fox Business Channel "Mornings with Maria" program that she had a conversation with Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison this week, and Ellison claimed that among the five board members The 4 "will be Americans."

However, if Sun Zhengyi now joins the board of TikTok Global, it will be the latest turning point in the progress of TikTok's transaction.

The Trump administration stated that TikTok's use of US personal user data may pose a threat to US national security.

As of Tuesday, media reports still believe that TikTok Global's board of directors includes Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok's parent company Bytedance. Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon (Doug McMillon) is also a member of TikTok Global's board of directors. The remaining directors of the board of directors are heads of Bytedance's existing investment institutions, including General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital.

In the past month, SoftBank has been exploring the acquisition of TikTok's assets in India. According to media reports, since negotiating the acquisition of TikTok's Indian business did not make progress, Sun Zhengyi has become very active in participating in the acquisition of TikTok.

SoftBank holds a small share of Bytedance. In 2018, a consortium led by SoftBank invested $3 billion in ByteDance.

In response to the above news, representatives of SoftBank, ByteDance, TikTok and Oracle did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the media.

According to SoftBank’s official website, the company’s investment in US technology companies has a long history, including Amazon, Tesla, Netflix, and Alphabet. The total investment in these four US technology companies alone amounts to 3.9 billion US dollars. However, Sun Zhengyi and his US$100 billion Vision Fund, invested in shared office space service provider WeWork suffered heavy losses.

It is unclear whether SoftBank is negotiating to acquire a new stake in TikTok's US business, and whether it plans to abandon its existing stake in Bytedance.

According to media reports, Oracle is negotiating to acquire a 12.5% stake in TikTok Global, and Wal-Mart wants to obtain a 7.5% stake in TikTok Global. ByteDance will hold 80% of TikTok Global's shares. TikTok Global controls the global TikTok business except China, and is headquartered in Texas, USA.

The US Department of Commerce has issued a ban, requiring Apple and Google's app stores in the US to stop providing TikTok download and update services this weekend. Before the ban took effect, ByteDance had asked the US court to block the implementation of the ban by the US Department of Commerce on Wednesday. (Tianmen Mountain)

Source: NetEase Technology Report, translated by Google Translate