Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but it appears that the TikTok sale odyssey may be about to wrap up. Here are the details.
Deal set to close in January
As reported by Axios, TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. unit to a joint venture with three managing investors: Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX.
This agreement, which is set to finally close on January 22, was announced via an internal memo sent by TikTok CEO Shou Chew and obtained by Axios.
Once it goes through, the deal will close out a convoluted process that began in 2020 under Trump, escalated into a 2024 divest-or-ban law signed by Biden. Then, it stretched into 2025 through multiple enforcement-delay extensions as the second Trump administration pushed for a sale framework.
Here’s how the newly created TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will be structured, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which also had access to Chew’s internal memo:
The new U.S. operations of TikTok will have three “managing investors” that will collectively own 45 percent of the company: Oracle Corporation, Silver Lake, and MGX (Abu Dhabi’s state investment firm). Another 5 percent will be owned by other new investors, 30.1 percent will be “held by affiliates of certain existing investors of ByteDance; and 19.9 percent will be retained by ByteDance.”
As a result of the deal, TikTok’s U.S. content recommendation algorithm will be retrained using U.S. user data, as an effort to “ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” said Chew.
Under the new arrangement, Oracle will be responsible for overseeing data protection.
What’s your take on the TokTok sale deal? Let us know in the comments.
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