TikTok Finally Agrees to Sell Its U.S. Operations After Years of Drama
The Chinese-owned social media giant will divest its U.S. entity to a joint venture controlled by American investors.
After years of threats and legal battles over Chinese ownership, TikTok finally blinked.
The social media giant signed a deal to sell its U.S. operations to a joint venture valued at around $14 billion, Axios is reporting. Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will collectively own 45% of the new entity dubbed “TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC,” with the agreement set to close on January 22.
The U.S. venture will handle data protection, algorithm security and content moderation, including retraining the recommendation algorithm on American user data to keep the feed “free from outside manipulation.”
The deal ends a wild ride that started when President Trump first demanded Chinese parent ByteDance sell TikTok in 2020 over national security concerns. Congress passed a ban-or-sell law in 2024, the Supreme Court upheld it in January, then Trump kept postponing enforcement while negotiating behind the scenes. Now the app that survived multiple death threats finally has new American owners — well, mostly American, since ByteDance is keeping nearly 20 percent for itself.
After years of threats and legal battles over Chinese ownership, TikTok finally blinked.
The social media giant signed a deal to sell its U.S. operations to a joint venture valued at around $14 billion, Axios is reporting. Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will collectively own 45% of the new entity dubbed “TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC,” with the agreement set to close on January 22.
The U.S. venture will handle data protection, algorithm security and content moderation, including retraining the recommendation algorithm on American user data to keep the feed “free from outside manipulation.”
The deal ends a wild ride that started when President Trump first demanded Chinese parent ByteDance sell TikTok in 2020 over national security concerns. Congress passed a ban-or-sell law in 2024, the Supreme Court upheld it in January, then Trump kept postponing enforcement while negotiating behind the scenes. Now the app that survived multiple death threats finally has new American owners — well, mostly American, since ByteDance is keeping nearly 20 percent for itself.
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