TikTok’s chief executive officer Kevin Mayer has resigned from his post. He sent a letter to his employees informing them of his decision.
In the letter, Mayer wrote that the political environment has sharply changed in the last few weeks. The company will soon undergo some corporate structural changes. With these changes, his role to oversee TikTok’s operations globally will look different. Hence, he has decided to leave the company.
Kevin Mayer left out of the recent talks with TikTok’s two bidders, Microsoft and Oracle
Kevin Mayer joined TikTok on June 1st, 2020. He was assigned to help the company move through the political pressures in the United States, due to TikTok’s Chinese ownership. He was also named the chief operating officer at ByteDance. Mayer left his post of head of Disney’s DTCI (direct to consumer and international) team and joined TikTok.
As per reports, Mayer was not included in the recent talks with two top TikTok’s bidders, Microsoft (now joined by Walmart), and Oracle. He was left out of the loop which reflected poorly on his future role of overlooking TikTok’s operations globally.
Once TikTok acquired, Mayer likely report to someone, says Tal Chalozin chief technology officer of Innovid
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TikTok confirmed Mayer’s departure and thanked him for his time at the company. As per recent developments, TikTok is breaking operations and selling off its US operations. Both Microsoft and Oracle are in talks with the company for a sale. President Donald Trump issued an executive order a few days earlier, giving the company 45 days to sell its business in the US or face a ban in the country.
Tal Chalozin, chief technology officer at an analytics firm Innovid said that once TikTok is acquired, Mayer will end up reporting to someone who will want to use TikTok for a different strategy. He said that Kevin has built a record at successful products and needs to be involved in something special.
Vanessa Pappas, the new interim CEO at TikTok
TikTok will get a new interim CEO, Vanessa Pappas. She has worked with ByteDance since 2018. She became TikTok’s general manager in January 2019. Before ByteDance, Pappas worked at YouTube for seven years and has a rich background in online video and social media platforms.
With Microsoft and Oracle being the top bidders for TikTok’s US operations, Vanessa’s role as interim CEO largely depends on who finally acquires the platform. It depends on the company’s strategy after the acquisition. Walmart has also joined the list of bidders and sees it as a potential e-commerce platform. The evolution of strategy will steer the leadership in a different direction and is a scenario to wait and watch for.