TikTok signs deal to sell US unit to American investor-led venture
The deal would end years of efforts to force the app's Chinese parent ByteDance to divest its US business over national security concerns.
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WASHINGTON: TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, signed binding agreements with three major investors to sell just over 80 per cent of the company's US assets to American and global investors to avoid a US government ban, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees on Thursday (Dec 18).
The deal is a major step toward resolving years of uncertainty about the short video app's future in the United States since August 2020, when then President Donald Trump first tried unsuccessfully to ban the app that is now used regularly by more than 170 million Americans.
The details of the deal are in line with one unveiled in September, when Trump delayed until Jan 20 enforcement of the law that bans the app unless its Chinese owners sell it amid efforts to extract TikTok's US assets from the global platform. He also declared that the deal met the terms of the divestiture requirements.
The company told employees on Thursday that ByteDance and TikTok signed binding agreements with three managing investors: Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX, to form a new TikTok US joint venture named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
Oracle declined to comment. The White House referred questions to TikTok. TikTok said in the memo that the deal will enable "over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community".
The deal, set to close on Jan 22, would end years of efforts to force the app's Chinese parent ByteDance to divest its US business over national security concerns.
The US joint venture will be 50 per cent held by a consortium of new investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX with 15 per cent each, 30.1 per cent held by affiliates of certain existing investors of ByteDance, and 19.9 per cent will be retained by ByteDance, the memo said.
Bytedance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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