TikTok CEO quits as firm reportedly plans sale to Microsoft, Walmart

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer, who solely started the job on June 1, is heading proper again out the door once more as the corporate plans a sale beneath stress from the White Home.

“In latest weeks, because the political setting has sharply modified, I’ve executed important reflection on what the company structural adjustments would require, and what it means for the worldwide function I signed up for,” Mayer wrote in an electronic mail to TikTok workers late Wednesday. “In opposition to this backdrop, and as we count on to achieve a decision very quickly, it’s with a heavy coronary heart that I needed to allow you to all know that I’ve determined to go away the corporate.”

Mayer praised workers’ efforts, saying that “there isn’t a doubt that the long run [of TikTok] is extremely brilliant.” However on the identical time, he added, “I perceive that the function that I signed up for—together with working TikTok globally—will look very totally different on account of the US Administration’s motion to push for a unload of the US enterprise.”

Till this spring, Mayer was considered one of Disney’s high executives, the place he efficiently headed the launch of the Disney+ streaming service. In February, nevertheless, he was unexpectedly handed over to succeed outgoing Disney CEO Bob Iger in favor of Bob Chapek. Three months later he introduced he was leaping ship to TikTok, in a transfer that spawned dozens of tales about TikTok’s meteoric development and its potential to make it large as a power in media.

TikTok, in its official assertion on Mayer’s departure, mentioned, “We recognize that the political dynamics of the previous couple of months have considerably modified what the scope of Kevin’s function could be going ahead, and absolutely respect his choice.”