TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance will continue to profit from the video-sharing app’s American business operations as part of a deal negotiated by President Trump.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to transfer majority ownership of TikTok’s US business to a consortium of US investors that include Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, and Lachlan Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp, which also owns The Times.
He said the deal would keep the site operating after legislation was passed last year forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations to an American company by early this year over national security concerns or face a ban in the US.
• Trump signs executive order for US consortium to buy TikTok
However, ByteDance is likely to continue to receive about half the profit from the US operations, Bloomberg reported. ByteDance is also expected to receive a licensing fee on all revenue generated from its algorithm in the US. The final structure is understood to be still under discussion.
The details about the ownership structure may raise questions in Congress and among critics about whether the deal represents a qualified divestiture of all of TikTok’s US assets as required under the 2024 law which required ByteDance to divest its US operations or face a ban.
On Friday John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives China select committee, said he would conduct full oversight over the deal, and said it should “preclude operational ties between the new entity and ByteDance”.
“The law also set firm guardrails that prohibit co-operation between ByteDance and any prospective TikTok successor on the all-important recommendation algorithm,” Moolenaar said.
The new US company will be valued at about $14 billion, JD Vance, the vice-president, said.
Reports in Chinese media published on Friday described a two-part structure in which ByteDance will continue to own the part of TikTok US that will be responsible for e-commerce, branding operations and interconnection with international operations, while a separate new joint venture will handle the user data and algorithm.
The reports by the Chinese media outlets LatePost and Caixin were taken down later on Friday.
