TikTok agrees to sell its US business, deal to be completed by January 2026

JAKARTA - TikTok finally signed a deal to sell its US business unit to a joint venture involving three major investors. This deal will be completed in the near future.

Launching from the Axios report, this sales process will be completed completely on January 22. This big news was confirmed through an internal memo sent by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to his employees.

This deal finally settles the divestment demands that have been voiced for years. TikTok in the US will later stand as a new company structure called TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.

This corporate structure will involve other companies such as Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX as managing investors. The three companies collectively will hold 45 percent of the shares of TikTok's operations in the US.

The remaining shareholding will be divided between ByteDance, an affiliate of the old investor, as well as several other new investors. ByteDance will retain its 19.9 percent stake in the new structure.

As part of the deal, the content recommendation algorithm for users in the US will undergo a special retraining process. This step is taken to ensure that the feed for US users will be free from various forms of manipulation by outsiders.

From its future operations, Oracle will hold full responsibility for overseeing user data protection. This cooperation is expected to end the national security concerns that have long overshadowed the platform.