NEW YORK: TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd officially established a venture to transfer parts of TikTok’s US business to non-Chinese owners, securing the popular video app’s future in the US and avoiding a nationwide ban.
As part of the deal, originally announced by the Trump Administration in September, some parts of TikTok will be spun out into a newly created US entity with three managing investors: Oracle Corp., private equity firm Silver Lake Management LLC, and Abu Dhabi-based investment company MGX.
A TikTok sale concludes a yearslong geopolitical and regulatory tug-of-war that, for half a decade, has threatened to shut down TikTok in the US over national security concerns.
Congress originally passed legislation in 2024 to ban the app unless ByteDance sold TikTok – citing concerns that the Chinese government could abuse access to US user data or use the app to push narratives preferred by Beijing. TikTok has maintained neither has happened.