Internal memo: TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US unit; Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX will collectively own 45% of the US entity, and ByteDance will retain ~20%

TikTok has signed a deal to divest its U.S. entity to a joint venture controlled by American investors, per an internal memo seen by Axios.

Axios 2025-12-19 Sara Fischer

Discussion

@acedtect Tom Merritt on x
USDS is the company that keeps US TIkTok data on Oracle servers now. A new joint venture called TikTok USDS will be created by 1/22 that will add retraining the algorithm to its ops. TikTok Global will still handle interoperability and money-making. https://www.cnbc.com/...
@danprimack Dan Primack on x
Confirmed w/ source that the $14 billion enterprise value didn't change between Sept and now. That's the price.
@mattzeitlin Matthew Zeitlin on x
Congratulations Larry Ellison and Jeff Yass
@gordongchang Gordon G. Chang on x
We cannot leave control of the TikTok curation algorithm in China's hands. This deal, therefore, does not work for America.
@adamscochran Adam Cochran on x
So the “Force TikTok to sell because it's Chinese spyware” results in Chinese entity and investors still owning 50%... And 45% being owned by US companies... And 5% not mentioned, as I'm sure someone is doing something sketchy with that...
@mattwhitlock Matt Whitlock on x
With a CCP-controlled algorithm, it's still the same dangerous digital fentanyl that President Trump tried to ban in his first term. No political consideration in the world should justify breaking the law to allow it to prey on our kids.
@billevanina William Evanina on x
Few people, (outside Oracle/MGX/Silver Lake), care about who owns what and how much money they will make. It is ALL about who owns and controls the ALGORITHMS. It is that simple. CCP continued influence of 160 M + Americans is at stake. Eyes wide open. @ChinaSelect
@senwarren Elizabeth Warren on x
First Paramount / CBS and now TikTok. Trump wants to hand over even more control of what you watch to his billionaire buddies. Americans deserve to know if the President struck another backdoor deal for this billionaire takeover of TikTok.
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
Forgot about this. Oracle has a lot on its plate these days.
@peterhamby Peter Hamby on x
So ~50% of TikTok will still be owned and operated by entities outside the U.S. including .... ByteDance? A national security masterstroke!
@pkafka Peter Kafka on x
$14 billion for US TikTok is a crazy low price. There are at least two possible explanations. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
@michaelsocolow Michael Socolow on x
I have a feeling the historical legacy of the Tik Tok negotiation won't have anything to do with ownership. I think it's the first time in my lifetime Congress passed a law, the Supreme Court upheld the law as Constitutional, and the President chose not to enforce the law.
@michaelsobolik Michael Sobolik on x
As the administration has said, the algorithm will be licensed from ByteDance. If that is indeed true, this deal is illegal and unsafe for Americans. Forget the majority-CCP controlled ownership. Forget the ByteDance board seat. The algorithm would remain in China's hands.
@rushdoshi Rush Doshi on x
So there's a TikTok deal, but still some questions about who controls the algorithm. They say it will be trained on US data. Great, but has the algorithm been transferred, licensed, or is it still owned and controlled by Beijing — with Oracle merely providing “monitoring?” [image…
@davidshepardson David Shepardson on x
Confirming @axios — here is the @tiktok_us CEO email on JV deal [screenshot: “Update on our U.S. business - I am pleased to share some great news. We have signed agreements with investors regarding a new TikTok U.S. joint venture, enabling over 170 million Americans to continue …
@sarafischer Sara Fischer on x
🚨🚨🚨Scoop: TikTok signs deal for sale of U.S. unit - Deal close set for Jan 22 - Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX will collectively own 45% of the US entity. ~ 30% held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors ~ 20% will be retained by ByteDance @axios https://www.axios.com/...
@thebluenami.is.democrat @thebluenami.is.democrat on bluesky
ORACLE...owned by larry ellison — PARAMOUNT...owned by his son david ellison — and now TIK TOK (the US entity) now “owned” by larry — get ready for tiktok to become TWITTER 2.0 with the algorithm that will be tweaked to promote m@ga accounts — 🤮🤮🤮 …
@evangreer Evan Greer on bluesky
US Dems including Biden rallying behind the TikTok ban cuz they thought xenophobia and national security hawkishness was “good politics” was arguably the most embarrassing unforced error of any Democratic administration in recent history. [embedded post]
@evacide @evacide on bluesky
The US TikTok sale has been signed. The company will be controlled by a joint venture including Oracle, Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, Abu Dhabi-based MGX. Adding a UAE company really makes it clear that this was never about national security concerns. — www.axios.com/2025…
@rswestmore.land Richard Westmoreland on bluesky
I didn't think this was really ever going to happen [embedded post]
r/neoliberal r on reddit
Scoop: TikTok signs deal for sale of U.S. unit after yearslong saga
r/Fauxmoi r on reddit
TikTok officially signs deal to sell U.S. entity to investor-led venture: Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX will collectively own 45% of the new entity. …
@salvagni.org Jason D. Salvagni on bluesky
Always a 🎯 from @karlbode.com [embedded post]
@karlbode.com Karl Bode on bluesky
I wrote about the cronyistic TikTok deal, and how it once again shows the U.S. is too corrupt to function in the public interest, despite a whole lot of pretense to the contrary
@raydouglas Ray Douglas on bluesky
🇺🇸 🇨🇳 Crucially, “Oracle will oversee the algorithm that recommends videos in users' feeds” and that's the secret sauce that has made the Chinese network so successful — www.ft.com/content/7a77...
@justinhendrix Justin Hendrix on bluesky
“TikTok has signed an agreement to create a US joint venture under a deal brokered by President Donald Trump that leaves the app's Chinese owner ByteDance with direct control of its core business operations in America.”
@prietschka Paul Rietschka on bluesky
This is idiotic in the more specific sense that this is not how training is done. — Do you think Facebook trains solely on US user data? Or X? Or any social network? They segment, yes, but cordoning off the training data this way is senseless. — Also, wasn't this started u…
@jonathancohn Jonathan Cohn on bluesky
Democrats were so worked up about young people seeing the genocide happening in Gaza that they paved the road for TikTok becoming owned by Trump family members and cronies. — Also, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to break the law repeatedly with no redress — www.hollywoodrepo…
@bobbyallyn Bobby Allyn on bluesky
I think attn should turn to what the content moderation regime looks like under this new entity. @anupamchander.bsky.social told me “it is possible that the American TikTok might end up censoring or hiding speech that is permissible on the global TikTok platform” www.npr.org/2025…
@sarahbauerled Sarah Bauerle Danzman on bluesky
Is this the final chapter in the TikTok saga? What valuation does the deal put TikTok USA at? What are the data safeguards? How will owners manage the algorithm? I'm a broken record, but divestment should have happened through IPO. www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/ dig...
@bobbyallyn Bobby Allyn on bluesky
One interesting aspect of the TikTok deal is: There will now be an American version of TikTok overseen by Larry Ellison's Oracle, PE firm Silver Lake and UAE-backed MGX, and then a second version of TikTok controlled by ByteDance for the rest of the world.
@karlbode.com Karl Bode on bluesky
continuing my rant against this stupid TikTok deal, it requires “retraining the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” which means nothing because our regulators don't function and you can't trust anybody …
@camsavage00 Cam on bluesky
by January 23rd every other video on people's fyps will be Nick Fuentes 🤩 [embedded post]
@nitishpahwa.com Nitish Pahwa on bluesky
so uh ... this cites an internal memo and seems like it's official?? www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/ dig...
@bencollins Tim Onion on bluesky
TikTok will now be owned by the Ellisons, Jared Kushner's firm, and Abu Dhabi's state investment fund.
r/technology r on reddit
TikTok Sale Is Done, Oracle and Silver Lake Among Buyers

Chronicles

Internal memo: TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US unit; Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX will collectively own 45% of the US entity, and ByteDance will retain ~20%

Related Coverage

Discussion