Several American Investors Set To Take Over U.S. Operations As TikTok Sale Is Finalized

After a long and winding affair fraught with legal struggles, TikTok is finally set to have it’s operations in the U.S. handed over to investors within the country. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the deal reportedly was signed Thursday after the Trump administration claimed it had reached deal with China back in September. The massive music platform faced looming threat of a ban since the start of the year due to a federal law demanding the app be sold by it’s owner, Chinese-based technology company ByteDance, to a group within the United States. After a myriad of delays to work out a deal, the app is now set to have a joint venture owner for U.S. operations, fittingly called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.

The app will have three “managing investors” which in total hold 45% ownership, comprised of Oracle Corproation. SIlver Lake and MGX (the state investment firm of Abu Dhabi). 30.1% will be “held by affiliates of certain existing investors of ByteDance; and 19.9 percent will be retained by ByteDance.” The last 5% will be owned by other new investors to the app.  While it was previously indicated by President Trump that the Fox Corp. could also be a part of the ownership, but it is unclear if it is part of that remaining 5% at this time.

In a memo to TikTok staff, CEO Shou Chew wrote the following, “I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued dedication and tireless work. Your efforts keep us operating at the highest level and will ensure that TikTok continues to grow and thrive in the U.S. and around the world. With these agreements in place, our focus must stay where it’s always been—firmly on delivering for our users, creators, businesses and the global TikTok community.”

TikTok was the center of swirling controversy as far back as Trump’s first administration when the app was banned on military devices in 2019. The app remained at the center of attention through both the remainder of Trump’s first term as well as during the Biden administration, where concerns were raised not only about national security and information privacy, but specific issues such as allegations from Republicans of the app having a pro-Palestinian bias. Many critics as well as ByteDance themselves raised concerns that the bans impeded upon First and Fifth Amendment rights. The company ultimately received the ultimatum to have U.S. operations of the app be handled by U.S. companies or face a complete ban.