TikTok signed a deal on Thursday under which 80% of its US assets will be sold to a group of three investors, Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX. The deal ensures that the social media platform can continue to operate in the United States.
The sale means TikTok will avoid a U.S. government ban and remain available to the more than 170 million people who use it in the United States, company CEO Shaw Zi Chew told employees.
ByteDance and TikTok have signed a binding agreement with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to form a new TikTok US joint venture, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, the company told employees on Thursday.
50% of the joint venture will be held by a consortium of new investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX with 15% each; 30.1% is held by affiliates of ByteDance’s existing investors; And 19.9% will be retained by ByteDance, which will have a new, seven-member majority U.S. board of directors and “protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security,” the memo said.
The deal is scheduled to close on January 22. The deal will end years of uncertainty amid efforts to force ByteDance to sell its US business following multiple threats that it could be shut down for US national security reasons.
The memo said TikTok’s algorithm, which powers the short video platform’s video feed, will be retrained on US user data “to ensure that the content feed is free from external manipulation.” The joint venture will also oversee content moderation and policies within the United States.
More on this developing story to come on dw.com