TikTok is in its US era now, but there’s still a lot of questions surrounding the deal.
Good morning to everyone except the European Ryder Cup team! The biennial (that means every two years) golf tournament between the US and Europe tees off this morning right in NYC’s backyard on Long Island. BI’s Alice Tecotzky will be our boots on the ground today, so if you’ll be at Bethpage, drop her a line.
In other news, Amazon reached a record $2.5 billion settlement with the FTC to resolve a case over its Prime subscription practices, which were first reported on by Business Insider back in 2022.
In today’s big story, President Donald Trump approved a TikTok deal, but there are still plenty of unanswered questions.
What’s on deck:
Markets: A quantum leap in trading just took place.
Tech: The vibes on vibe coding are not great.
Business: Starbucks’ CEO Brian Niccol is taking a page from his old playbook to overhaul the coffee giant.
But first, TikTok’s no longer on the clock.TikTok (America’s version)
We’ve finally got a TikTok deal. The specifics of it are another question.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order blessing TikTok’s sale for roughly $14 billion, writes BI’s Dan Whateley. The deal ends the threat of the divest-or-ban law hanging over the app’s head since the beginning of the year.
TikTok’s new US era doesn’t mean the questions surrounding its future will stop. In fact, Trump’s executive order led to many more questions.
One big one is who exactly is getting TikTok. While it will be a consortium of investors, the exact makeup of the group wasn’t disclosed. Trump said « four or five world-class investors » are involved, including Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch, and Larry Ellison.
Oracle will also audit TikTok’s all-important algorithm, according to an earlier statement from White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
« What this deal ensures is that the American entity, the American investors, will actually control the algorithm », Vice President JD Vance said.
Theoretically, TikTok users shouldn’t expect any initial significant changes to their app.
After all, the whole point of the deal was to keep things running smoothly, albeit in US control.
But down the road, all bets are off. Here are three big questions that remain:
What’s going to happen to the algorithm? The app’s powerful algorithm is the most valuable piece of TikTok and was a key factor in the divest-or-ban law.
