TikTok owner signs deal to avert US ban

TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, has signed binding agreements with US and international investors to operate the app’s business in the United States, chief executive Shou Zi Chew told employees on Thursday.

In a memo, Chew said that half of the joint venture will be owned by a group that includes Oracle, Silver Lake, and the Emirati investment firm MGX.

The deal, set to close on January 22, is intended to end years of pressure from Washington for ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations due to national security concerns, and follows a framework announced in September after President Donald Trump delayed enforcement of a law that would ban the app unless it was sold.

ByteDance will keep 19.9% of the business, while Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will each hold 15%. A further 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors, the memo said.

The White House has previously said Oracle will license TikTok’s recommendation algorithm under the arrangement.

The law at the heart of the dispute was passed by Congress in April 2024 under President Joe Biden, with a ban set to take effect on January 20, 2025. However, Trump repeatedly postponed it while negotiations continued.

Trump said in September that he had discussed the plan with China’s President Xi Jinping and that Xi had approved it, although uncertainty persisted after the leaders met in October amid broader US-China tensions.

Senate Democrat Ron Wyden criticised the deal, saying it would not protect Americans’ privacy, even as TikTok said its algorithm would be retrained on US user data to prevent manipulation.

Some users also voiced concerns, including small business owner Tiffany Cianci, who said she hoped entrepreneurs would be protected and noted that she uses TikTok because its profit-sharing terms are more favourable than those of rivals such as Meta.