After months of negotiations, TikTok finalized a deal with several American investors days before the deadline, which would have reportedly led to the app being banned in the United States.
Under the deal, TikTok got rid of the control of ByteDance, which retained a 20% stake, while the remaining 80% was distributed between Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX and other companies, so that each of these three companies obtained 15% of the shares.
One of the most prominent elements of this deal is that the new joint company will ensure the protection of American users’ data, while keeping the TikTok algorithm that relies on their data local on US servers. Oracle will host this data and manage content monitoring.
Furthermore, the new joint venture will cover the CapCut and Lemon8 platforms, providing interoperability and access to international content for all users.
Operations will be overseen by seven board members, most of whom are Americans, including Xu Zhizhu, CEO of TikTok, Egon Durban, co-CEO of Silver Lake, Kenneth Gluck, executive vice president at Oracle, and David Scott, head of strategy and safety at MGX.
