President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that a deal has been reached to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States, just before the app faced a potential ban.
The agreement focuses on transferring TikTok’s U.S. assets from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to American ownership. The White House has extended the divestiture deadline to December 16, providing 90 more days to finalize the transfer.
Key Details of the Agreement:
- Ownership Structure: The new U.S.-led consortium will control an 80% stake, while ByteDance will hold a 19.9% stake.
- Investors: The new ownership group is expected to include current ByteDance shareholders Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic, and KKR, along with new investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Oracle, and Silver Lake. Oracle will also continue its cloud partnership with TikTok.
- Governance: The new entity will have a board dominated by Americans, with one member appointed by the U.S. government.
The deal is a direct response to a 2024 law that mandated TikTok’s divestiture due to national security concerns over potential data access and influence campaigns by Beijing. While the agreement signifies a major step, it still needs to be approved by Congress.
Trump, who has his own personal TikTok account with 15 million followers, has consistently avoided a full ban, partly to prevent backlash from the app’s 170 million U.S. users. The new agreement suggests that the two countries are willing to separate this issue from their wider trade disputes.
According to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the commercial terms of the deal were “essentially done since March,” with only technical details remaining. It is expected to close within the next 30 to 45 days.
