"TikTok" sells majority stake in U.S. operations to non-Chinese investors

SadaNews Economy - The Chinese company "ByteDance", owner of the "TikTok" application, finalized a deal last Thursday evening to establish a joint venture with American partners owning the majority stake, in order to avoid a ban on the popular social media app used by over 200 million Americans.

The deal represents a significant achievement for the short video app, following years of battles that began in August 2020 when President Donald Trump made his first unsuccessful attempt to ban the application over national security concerns. ByteDance clarified that the company (TikTok U.S. DS Joint Venture LLC) will secure the data of American users and the applications and algorithms through data privacy and cybersecurity measures.

The agreement stipulates that American and global investors will own an 80.1% stake in the new joint venture, while ByteDance will retain a 19.9% stake. The three main investors in the new company, namely the giant cloud computing company Oracle, the Silver Lake private equity group, and Abudhabi-based MGX Investment, will each hold a 15% stake.

A White House official told Reuters that both the U.S. and Chinese governments had approved the deal. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately issue any comment.