According to the company, a day before the deadline set by President Donald Trump, a joint venture was officially registered to acquire TikTok's assets in the US, and its management team was announced.
The completion of the deal marks the end of years of efforts aimed at ensuring TikTok's long-term presence in the US and addressing concerns about its threat to national security.
“The new joint venture, with a controlling stake owned by American investors, will operate under strict guarantees ensuring national security, including data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software guarantees for users in the US,” representatives of the group stated in their announcement on Thursday.
The joint venture will be led by Adam Presser, who previously oversaw the security of American user data at TikTok, and Will Farrell, responsible for privacy and security in the project.
The process will be managed by a board of directors that will include Shou Chew, TikTok's CEO in the US, Kenneth Gluck, Executive Vice President of Oracle, as well as representatives from investment firms Susquehanna International Group, Silver Lake, and MGX.
President Trump expressed gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping for “cooperation and approval of the deal.”
“He could have acted differently but chose not to, and that decision deserves respect,” Trump noted in his post on Truth Social.
No comments have yet been received from the Chinese government regarding the new structure of the deal. CNN has sent a request to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce regarding this matter.
Trump added that he is “very glad to have saved TikTok” and thanked members of his administration for bringing the deal to a “satisfactory conclusion.”
The story of TikTok in the US began when Trump promised to ban the app during his first term. The situation worsened in 2024 when then-President Joe Biden signed a law requiring the American version of the app to be separated from ByteDance or banned. During his second term, Trump repeatedly postponed the implementation of the law, attempting to finalize a deal for the transfer of control to American owners.
When Trump approved the deal last fall, he set a deadline for its completion of January 23. TikTok finalized the deal last month.
This deal is likely to be a positive development for over 200 million American TikTok users, many of whom use the app for entertainment, news, and even to earn a living.
According to the agreement, the management of American TikTok user data and most of its operations in the US will be transferred to the new joint venture, 50% of which will be owned by a consortium of investors, including technology company Oracle, investment firm Silver Lake, and UAE-backed MGX. According to information sent to Chew's staff last month, just over 30% of the shares will be owned by “affiliates of some existing ByteDance investors,” while 19.9% will remain with ByteDance.
The new structure will retrain TikTok's algorithm on data from American users, while Oracle will be responsible for their storage. The joint venture will also handle content moderation for users in the US. However, according to Chew's memo, the global structure of TikTok, controlled by ByteDance, will continue to manage e-commerce, advertising, and marketing on the platform.
This means that the user experience for American users in the app is unlikely to change significantly, although the algorithm determining which videos are shown may change after control is transferred to the new group of owners.
Last year, Trump defined the deal to separate the subsidiary as a “qualified asset sale” under the law. However, questions remain about how completely this agreement addresses the national security concerns that initially prompted lawmakers to adopt this law.
American officials have expressed concerns that ByteDance could be compelled to manipulate the algorithm for the Chinese government to influence Americans. The law prohibited “any cooperation on the content recommendation algorithm” between ByteDance and the new American owner.
“The interaction between the companies will allow the joint venture to provide American users with a global TikTok experience, as well as the ability to find American content creators and conduct business on the international stage,” representatives of the joint venture stated.
According to the agreement signed on Thursday, the new joint venture will continue to license TikTok's algorithm from ByteDance, after which it will be retrained and verified.
Before the deal was finalized, it remained unclear how Beijing would react. TikTok has become an important element in broader US-China trade negotiations; an earlier version of the deal was scuttled last year when Trump announced a new round of tariffs.
Last month, Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yunchang confirmed that Beijing and Washington had agreed on the main framework for addressing issues related to TikTok and trade.
“The Chinese leadership hopes that companies can reach solutions that comply with Chinese laws and interests,” He stated. He also expressed hope that the US would sincerely fulfill its obligations and ensure a fair and open business environment for Chinese companies.
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The American cloud technology company Oracle, investment firm Silver Lake, and operator of the investment firm MGX will each own 15% of the shares in the new joint venture.
The chairman of Oracle's board is Larry Ellison, a major donor to the Republican Party and a longtime ally of Donald Trump. In September, Trump named the 81-year-old Ellison among the investors who raised “significant funds” to complete this deal.
The company will also oversee the retraining of TikTok's recommendation algorithm, which affects the content available to users.
The parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, will retain 19.9% of the shares, allowing it to remain below the legally established 20% threshold.
The remaining 35.1% of the joint venture is owned by: Michael Dell's family office, another Trump supporter; Vastmere Strategic Investments—a subsidiary of Susquehanna, founded by another Trump ally Jeff Yass; Alpha Wave Partners; Revolution; Meritt Way; Via Nova; Virgo LI; and NJJ Capital.
What is Oracle's role in TikTok's operations in the US?
BBC Technology Correspondent in North America.
As previously reported, Oracle will play a key role in the new joint venture, the agreement for which was finalized on Thursday.
According to the joint venture, it will be responsible for the data protection of 200 million American TikTok users.
Oracle will also be involved in retraining TikTok's recommendation algorithm, which influences the content available to users of the app. The company's founder, Larry Ellison, is a political ally and friend of US President Donald Trump.
Last year, he briefly held the title of the world's richest person, surpassing Elon Musk.
Recently, Ellison has been in the spotlight not only because of TikTok. He also made a hostile bid against media giant Warner Brothers Discovery, targeting Netflix. Additionally, last year he struck a deal that resulted in his family leading another major media company, Paramount. (BBC is a partner of CBS News, which is owned by Paramount.)
