TikTok Signs Deal to Sell U.S. Business to Three American Investors

The Chinese-owned TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. business to three American investors so it can operate in the country free of Chinese influence.

The companies Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX would be the three American investors to purchase the U.S. version of TikTok. An internal memo confirmed by Reuters and the Associated Press (AP) says the deal had been signed.

“The new TikTok US joint venture will be 50% held by a consortium of new investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX with 15% each,” the Guardian said of the memo. “Another 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors and 19.9% will be retained by ByteDance, according to the memo.”

Oracle will reportedly “license a copy of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm as part of the deal, in a partnership that will expand on Oracle’s existing management of TikTok’s trove of data collected about its US users.”

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a national security law last January, which stipulated that the Chinese-owned ByteDance (parent company of TikTok) would be required to divest U.S. operations of the social media site or face a full-on ban. In September, President Donald Trump signed an executive order “approving a proposed deal that would keep TikTok operational in the U.S. by meeting the requirements of a law originally signed by former President Joe Biden,” per CNBC.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees on Thursday that the joint venture would be “majority owned by American investors, governed by a new seven-member majority-American board of directors, and subject to terms that protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security.”