President Trump said Sunday that Lachlan Murdoch, the head of Fox Corp. and sister media company News Corp, could be included in a group of US investors that includes tech moguls Larry Ellison and Michael Dell that would buy a controlling stake in TikTok’s US operations.
“I think they’re going to be in the group,” the president said in an interview with Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing that was recorded Friday and aired Sunday. “A couple of others. Really great people, very prominent people. And they’re also American patriots, you know, they love this country. I think they’re going to do a really good job.”
Trump said Rupert Murdoch, the former longtime head of Fox and News Corp, could also be involved in the deal.
Ellison’s involvement had already been reported. According to White House press secretary Karolina Leavitt on Saturday said Ellison’s company, Oracle, would handle the video-sharing app’s data and security.
She added that six of the seven seats on a planned board would be held by Americans.
Many aspects of the deal remain unclear. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinpeng discussed the deal during a phone call on Friday. US and Chinese officials have until Dec. 16 to finalize details before the deadline extension closes.
Trump has delayed on four separate occasions the implementation of a law requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest itself of the video-sharing app or face a ban in the US over national security concerns.
A source familiar with the matter shared that Lachlan Murdoch’s involvement would be on the Fox side.
Neither Oracle nor Dell Technologies immediately responded to requests for comment.
The Post is a unit of News Corp.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
