TikTok finalizes deal to avoid US ban, ending a long legal saga

TikTok said Thursday that its Chinese owner, ByteDance, had struck a deal with a group of non-Chinese investors to create a new U.S. TikTok, concluding a six-year legal saga that saw the app banned by Congress, ensnared in politicking between global superpowers and forced into a 14-hour blackout in the United States.

Investors including software giant Oracle; MGX, an Emirati investment firm; and Silver Lake, another investment firm will own more than 80% of the new venture. That list also includes the personal investment entity for Michael Dell, the tech billionaire behind Dell Technologies, and other firms, TikTok said. Adam Presser, TikTok’s operations head, will be the CEO for the U.S. TikTok.

The deal is intended to loosen TikTok’s ties to China and address national security concerns that Beijing could use the app to surveil or manipulate its more than 200 million users in the United States. The changes enable “our U.S. users to continue to discover, create, and thrive as part of TikTok’s vibrant global community and experience,” said Shou Chew, TikTok’s CEO, calling the move “great news.”

The agreement, which was hammered out over more than a year, resolves existential questions about TikTok’s future. The app would have had to leave the U.S. market if it did not separate from ByteDance.

It was also the end of a legal odyssey. Since 2019, universities, several branches of the U.S. military, the vast majority of the House of Representatives and both President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden have tried to ban or block TikTok, with unanimous support from the Supreme Court. Influencers, mobilized by the app, lobbied politicians and mounted protests to save their feeds and follower counts. TikTok became embroiled in a trade war between the United States and China as the nations engaged in a heated contest over technology and industrial supremacy.

It was unclear how much, if anything, the deal would change for TikTok’s users in the United States.

Under the new arrangement, Oracle, MGX and Silver Lake will each own 15% of TikTok’s U.S. operations. ByteDance will own just under 20%.

The other investors include Dell’s office and a long list of investment firms, including affiliates of General Atlantic and Susquehanna, both of which had previously invested in ByteDance.

The majority of the seven-member board for the new entity will be American. Chew has a seat on the board.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.