TikTok secures deal to remain in US

President Donald Trump signs fourth extension to delay TikTok ban

(Image credit: Yuri Gripas / Abaca / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What happened

TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, said Thursday it had secured binding deals with three major investors to form a U.S. version of the popular video-sharing platform. Under the agreements, outlined by TikTok CEO Shou Chew in a memo to employees, Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will each own 15% of the new venture, leading a consortium with 50% control of U.S. TikTok.

Who said what

The deal “marks the end of years of uncertainty” about TikTok’s fate in the U.S., The Associated Press said. Congress passed a law that “would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it did not find a new owner,” but after the platform briefly went dark in January, President Donald Trump, “without a clear legal basis,” signed four executive orders to stave off the ban while his administration sought new ownership.

ByteDance is set to retain a 19.9% stake in the new venture, while 30.1% will be owned by its affiliates and partners. It wasn’t clear who would own the last 5%, but Trump suggested in September that Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch would hold stakes, along with Oracle’s Larry Ellison. “Trump wants to hand over even more control of what you watch to his billionaire buddies,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said on social media Thursday.

What next?

Chew’s memo “suggested that the deal would close on Jan. 22, just one day before the latest deadline for TikTok to find a new owner,” The New York Times said. The Trump administration has to approve the deal, but “at this stage, I see no regulatory issues,” analyst Craig Huber told Reuters, especially since Trump was “very involved in putting the whole sale together from the beginning.”

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.