TikTok has finalized the deal to sell its US business, according to reports from Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, and CNBC. They report that a memo from TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to employees on Thursday said the deal will close on January 22nd, with Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX owning 45 percent of the company, while its China-based parent company ByteDance will hold 20 percent.
The remainder of the company will be held by “affiliates of existing ByteDance investors,” Axios reports. TikTok briefly went dark in the US in January as the divest-or-ban law came into effect. Throughout the year, President Donald Trump granted TikTok a series of extensions to come up with a deal to sell its US-based operations. The US and China agreed on a “framework” for a deal in September, leading to yet another extension that expired on December 16th.
“Your efforts keep us operating at the highest level and will ensure that TikTok continues to grow and thrive in the U.S. and around the world,” Chew wrote, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “With these agreements in place, our focus must stay where it’s always been — firmly on delivering for our users, creators, businesses and the global TikTok community.”
Reports indicate that the US-based TikTok will use an algorithm based on the one created by ByteDance, but it will be retrained on US user data and controlled by Oracle. TikTok didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
