By
Chimamanda U. Martha
May 13th, 2024
TikTok U.S. general manager Vanessa Pappas will replace Kevin Mayer who served as TikTok CEO for less than three months.
TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer who has been in charge of the company for less than three months decided to quit. His decision resulted from numerous battles of TikTok with Donald Trump administration.
In a letter to employees, Kevin Mayer said:
“In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for. Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company.”
Before joining TikTok on June 1, Kevin Mayer served as a top streaming executive at The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS). At TikTok, general manager Vanessa Pappas will replace him.
TikTok spokesperson commented:
“We appreciate that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Kevin’s role would be going forward, and fully respect his decision. We thank him for his time at the company and wish him well.”
TikTok Ban and Sale Rumours
TikTok has lately been facing pressure from Donald Trump administration. The latter banned the TikTok app on the premise that it collects data on Americans for use by Beijing. Other Chinese apps like WeChat fell out of graces with the Trump administration over alleged threats of national security.
Following Trump’s order, TikTok has got up to 45 days up to mid-September to withdraw its operations from the country. However, there appeared companies that started talks with TikTok parent ByteDance to acquire TikTok’s operations outside China.
Among the potential buyers were Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL), and Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR). The most likely candidate to acquire TikTok is the first one. Initially, Microsoft planned to acquire a 30% stake in TikTok but now seems that Donald Trump has fueled the tech giant to consider a massive acquisition of TikTok’s worldwide operations. The sum of the deal is not yet clear.
Recently, TikTok filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
The company said:
“The company does not take suing the government lightly, however we feel we have no choice but to take action to protect our rights, and the rights of our community and employees. In our complaint we make clear that we believe the Administration ignored our extensive efforts to address its concerns, which we conducted fully and in good faith even as we disagreed with the concerns themselves.”
The lawsuit could delay the ban and TikTok more time to arrange a better acquisition deal.
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