The Trump Administration Will Pocket $10 Billion From TikTok
Trill News Briefing
The Story
The Trump administration is set to receive a roughly $10 billion fee from investors — including Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi's MGX — as payment for brokering the deal that transferred control of TikTok's U.S. business from Chinese parent company ByteDance to a majority American-owned entity.
Historians described the payment as nearly without precedent for a government facilitating a corporate transaction, dwarfing the typical fees earned by investment banks, which usually take less than 1% of a deal's total value.
Historians described the payment as nearly without precedent for a government facilitating a corporate transaction, dwarfing the typical fees earned by investment banks, which usually take less than 1% of a deal's total value.
Why It Matters
TikTok's American rescuers stand to pay the Treasury about $10 billion for the favor, starting with $2.5 billion handed over when the deal closed in January and installments stretching toward the total Reuters. Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi's MGX each hold 15 percent while ByteDance keeps 19.9, and the administration valued the business at $14 billion, meaning a market rate brokerage fee would have run near $140 million. Senator Mark Warner has asked Treasury who set the figure and whether Trump sought any cut for himself or his family, calling the arrangement without analogue in modern American history Variety. With $7.5 billion still unpaid, Treasury has yet to confirm the arrangement exists.
Go Deeper
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