TikTok agreed to sell its US business to a new American-controlled venture involving Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, reducing ByteDance’s stake after years of US national-security pressure over Chinese ownership.
TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US business to a joint venture controlled by American investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX, allowing the popular short-video platform to continue operating in the United States.
The agreement, set to close on January 22, is expected to end years of efforts by Washington to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its US operations over national security concerns.
CEO Shou Zi Chew said in the memo that ByteDance and TikTok have signed binding agreements with the three investors.
Under the new proposed structure, the new TikTok US entity will be 50 per cent owned by a consortium of new investors, with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX each holding a 15 per cent stake.
Another 30.1 per cent will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors and 19.9 per cent will be retained by ByteDance, according to the memo.
The deal caps a years-long saga in which US lawmakers and regulators raised concerns that TikTok’s Chinese ownership posed risks related to data security and foreign influence.
Multiple proposals to restructure or sell the company’s US arm had stalled amid geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing.
TikTok has over 170 million US users, and about 43 per cent of American adults under 30 regularly get news from the platform—more than from YouTube, Facebook or Instagram, according to a Pew Research Center report.
With inputs from Associated Press
