TikTok signs joint venture deal to end US ban threat
Trump has repeatedly delayed enforcement through successive executive orders, most recently extending the deadline until January.
TikTok said yesterday (18 Decenber) it had signed a joint venture deal with investors that would allow the company to maintain operations in the United States and avoid a ban threat over its Chinese ownership, US media reported.
According to an internal memo cited by Bloomberg and Axios, TikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees that the social media company as well as its Chinese owner ByteDance had agreed to the new entity, with Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX on board as major investors.
Oracle's executive chairman and founder Larry Ellison is a longtime ally of US President Donald Trump.
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Chew told staff that one-third of the US venture will be held by existing ByteDance investors, and nearly 20 percent will be retained by ByteDance - the maximum ownership allowed to a Chinese company under the terms of the law.
The new set-up for TikTok is in response to a law passed under Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, that has forced ByteDance to sell TikTok's US operations or face a ban in its biggest market.
US policymakers, including Trump in his first presidency, have warned that China could use TikTok to mine data from Americans or exert influence through its state-of-the-art algorithm.
Trump has repeatedly delayed enforcement through successive executive orders, most recently extending the deadline until January.
The deal largely confirms a September announcement by the White House that said a new venture had been agreed with China and would meet the requirements of the 2024 law.
"Upon the closing, the US joint venture... will operate as an independent entity with authority over US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance," Chew said in the memo, quoted by Bloomberg.
Meanwhile "TikTok Global's US entities will manage global product interoperability and certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing," he wrote.
Whether this unit would still be owned by ByteDance was not made clear in the memo.
The memo was the first indication that TikTok had signed onto the deal announced by the Trump administration and would have required the approval of the Chinese government to proceed.
Trump in September had specifically named Oracle boss Ellison, one of the world's richest men, as a major player in the arrangement.
Ellison has returned to the spotlight through his dealings with Trump, who has brought his old friend into major AI partnerships with OpenAI.
Ellison has also financed his son David's recent takeover of Paramount and is involved in his son's bidding war with Netflix to take over Warner Bros.
