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Donald Trump at the White House news briefing
Photo: LEAH MILLIS / REUTERS
US President Donald Trump has dampened Oracle's prospects for the deal that is supposed to save the Tiktok video app in the US.
The American software company wants to take on the role of a "technology partner", while TikTok's Chinese parent company Bytedance wants to keep the majority stake according to media reports.
With such a solution he would be "not happy," said Trump on Wednesday.
However, he will only be informed about the details of the plan on Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the White House was pushing for American investors to take over a majority in the US offshoot of TikTok.
Trump originally gave Bytedance the choice of either parting with TikTok or accepting an end to the app in the USA.
On the grounds that Chinese authorities could get data from Americans via the app, Trump describes TikTok as a security risk.
TikTok and Bytedance deny this.
The TikTok majority is said to be with US companies
Microsoft spent weeks negotiating the purchase of the TikTok business in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
However, the Chinese government torpedoed this solution with a new rule according to which software algorithms such as those from TikTok can only be sold abroad with Beijing's approval.
The new plan was then worked out with the participation of Oracle.
According to media reports, this provides that Oracle should take over the storage of data from US users and get access to TikTok's code.
This should ensure that the platform does not contain any back doors for Chinese authorities.
In addition, the global business of TikTok is to be bundled according to the plan in a new company based in the USA, it said.
Among other things, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin now wants to ensure that significantly more than 50 percent of the shares in this company are held by American investors.
In addition to Oracle and venture capitalists, the supermarket giant Walmart should also be there, who already wanted to participate in Microsoft's deal.
The end threatens from next weekend
Trump also complained that he had to give up his idea of allowing the US state to receive a kind of commission on the sale of the US business of TikTok because his government had made the deal possible in the first place.
"There is no legal way to do this," said Trump.
"I said, wait a minute, you want to pay the government a large amount - and we can't take the money? How stupid can we be?"
Trump initially prohibited American companies and people from doing business with TikTok.
This order should come into effect at the weekend - if there is no deal by then, it should mean the end of TikTok in the USA, at least temporarily.
Another Trump decree is due to take effect in mid-November, according to which Bytedance has to separate from all data from users in the United States.
Bytedance is also no longer allowed to own any property in the USA that is used for the operation of TikTok.
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mak / dpa