TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, signed agreements with three major investors to sell just over 80 percent of the company’s US assets to American and global investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX.
The three investors will collectively own 45 percent of the new entity, to form a new TikTok US joint venture named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
The deal, set to close on January 22, would end years of efforts to force ByteDance to divest its US business over national security concerns. However, the app is used by more than 170 million Americans.
The details of the deal are in line with one unveiled in September, when Trump delayed until January 20 enforcement of the law that bans the app unless its Chinese owners sell it amid efforts to extract TikTok’s U.S. 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 U.S. joint venture named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.