By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
ByteDance has announced that it will reward its staff amid discussions over the acquisition of TikTok in the U.S. The imposed deadline is approaching rather quickly.
ByteDance has announced that it will reward its staff amid a tension-filled discussion over the acquisition of the company’s North American operations. Per the Reuters report, ByteDance said it would hand out cash rewards to staffers working to help it “overcome challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and changing macro environment.”
ByteDance’s cash reward declaration was as seen in a letter sent to employees and hopes to pacify about 60,000 of its employees globally. As reported by Reuters, “The TikTok team and especially the deal team have been working day in and day out,” a company source said, adding staff morale at TikTok had been hit by the global challenges as well as the departure of its CEO Kevin Mayer who quit after just three months.
“Over the past few months, we have been working together to overcome challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and changing macro environment,” ByteDance said in its memo. “To thank everyone for their efforts and dedication, we will be issuing a cash bonus to all eligible employees,” it said, adding that it will pay out the bonus together with September’s salary to any full-timer who’s worked at least 26 days between July 1 and August 31.
The move by ByteDance to doll out this cash reward comes at a time when the growth of the company is slowing down as President Donald Trump stopped all transactions with the sensational app and has dampened morale. The company thus follows after the like of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co, which announced last year that it would hand out 2 billion yuan ($293 million) in cash rewards to staff as a mark of recognition for work in the face of a U.S. trade blacklisting.
ByteDance Reward Comes as U.S. Operation Deadline Approaches
The September 15 deadline given by President Trump’s administration is fast approaching and the company has not hinted any major deal reached from any company to hand its operations to.
While several companies have shown interest in acquiring the companies operations in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, CNBC hinted that TikTok has chosen a bidder for its operations in the aforementioned regions. It further outlined that the expected sale price ranges between $20 and $30 billion.
As CoinSpeaker earlier reported, China through the Ministry of Commerce issued a new set of regulations that may halt the proposed acquisition of TikTok North America’s operations. The ministry of commerce in conjunction with the Ministry of Science and Technology formulated, adjusted, and published a catalog of technologies that prohibit or restrict exports.
With ByteDance based in China, it will have to comply with the Chinese regulators before going ahead with the TikTok sale, a position that has complicated the entire deal. The entire TikTok’s sale embargo and acquisition negotiations have ushered out former Chief Executive Officer Kevin Meyer, further straining the process.
The likely chosen bidder by ByteDance to acquire its overseas assets is going to come from either Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL), or from the partnership between Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).