Trump signs order declaring TikTok deal terms met, Oracle rumored to be US investor
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Contribution by
Stefanie Schappert
US President Donald Trump signs an executive order on Thursday declaring a divestiture deal being negotiated by the White House to sell TikTok's US operations meets all the requirements laid out in the 2024 law, as several rumored investors are named.
The 2024 law, signed by then-President Joe Biden, says the short video app will be banned unless its parent company, the Chinese-owned ByteDance, sell it.
The new US company, crafted from group of global investors, will be valued at around $14 billion, US Vice President JD Vance said at the signing.
Trump, speaking with reporters, said that Michael Dell, Rupert Murdoch, and "probably four or five absolutely world-class investors" would be part of the deal.
"This is going to be American-operated all the way," Trump said.
Investor Rumors
A group of three investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake, will take a roughly 50% stake in TikTok US, a source familiar with the deal said on Thursday. Oracle and Silver Lake have not publicly commented on the claims.
A group of existing shareholders in TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, will hold a roughly 30% stake, the source said. Among ByteDance’s current investors are Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic and KKR.
Given intense investor interest in TikTok, the 50% stake may still shift, the source noted.
Trump has delayed enforcement of the law until December 16th amid efforts to extract TikTok's US assets from the global platform, line up American and other investors, and win approval from the Chinese government.
"There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans' data privacy as required by law," Vance said.
As part of the deal to secure TikTok’s future in America, the app’s signature algorithm will be copied and retrained using US user data.
Trump said, "I spoke with President Xi. We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing, and he said go ahead with it."
Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million US users, with helping him win re-election last year and has 15 million followers on his personal account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.
Republican House lawmakers said they want to see more details of the deal to ensure it represents a clean break with China.
"As the details are finalized, we must ensure this deal protects American users from the influence and surveillance of CCP-aligned groups,” said US representatives Brett Guthrie, Gus Bilirakis, and Richard Hudson.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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