US COMMUNICATIONS: AT&T: 3Q25 Results

MNI London: Reuters carrying comments from a senior White House official on a deal that will see the video-sharing app TikTok remain operational in the United States. The official says President Donald Trump will sign an executive order this week formally endorsing the deal and extending the deadline for TikTok to halt operations in the US. The order will declare that the deal meets the requirements of the 2024 divestment law. 

• The official says the investment group will “be a mixture of US and global firms,” noting that Trump “wants investors who are patriotic”. Oracle and Silver Lake are among the investors confirmed in the deal. The enforcement pause extension will allow Oracle time to examine the app's powerful algorithm.  
• The official claim the deals will yield “hundreds of billions of dollars of economic activity over next five years,” and the total valuation of the company will be “many billions of dollars.”
• The official confirms that the US government will not be taking equity in TikTok as part of the deal and there will be “no US government-selected board member or golden share”.
• The officials says the White House “does not have plans for more talks with Chinese delegation” and is “confident regulatory hurdles will move forward."
• An expert told NYT earlier that the deal may "look like weakness" from Beijing, but it’s a "tactical move" to focus Trump on tariffs, export controls, and an upcoming bilateral meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

HM Treasury has released a statement outlining the establishment of a 'Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future' following talks between Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent last week. The task force will report back to both ministers within 180 days "on recommendations to enhance collaboration on capital markets and digital assets and other innovative financial activities."

• The purpose of the taskforce is to examine, "Options for short-to-medium term collaboration on digital assets whilst legislation and regulatory regimes are still developing, as well as options for long-term collaboration and additional opportunities for wholesale digital markets innovation [and to explore] Options to improve links between our capital markets to enhance the growth and competitiveness of both UK and US markets, focusing on reducing burdens for UK and US firms raising capital cross-border. " Beyond the press release, there is little detail on the exact remit of this task force, how it will operate, or its composition. With the focus on 'innovative financial assets', areas such as stablecoin, tokenisation and the broader crypto market are likely to feature prominently in the task force's report.
• The announcement lines up with a report from the FT last week, which said that "Reeves hoped a closer alignment of rules would increase British companies’ access to the world’s deepest and most liquid financial markets, as well as attract greater American investment into the UK."

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