More details about a possible change in TikTok’s ownership have emerged as President Donald Trump signed an executive order approving a deal that would prevent the popular Chinese-owned video app being outlawed in the United States.
Vice President JD Vance said the app would be valued at about US$14 billion (A$21.4 billion) in the proposed sale, below analysts’ estimates of $30 billion to $35 billion and a fraction of the $330 billion that TikTok's Chinese parent, ByteDance, values itself at.
Trump said his plan for TikTok's U.S. operations to be sold to U.S. and global investors would address the national security requirements of a so-far unenforced 2024 law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its Chinese owners.
He said Oracle Corporation founder Larry Ellison, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell, Fox Corporation and News Corporation Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch and other “world-class investors" would be part of the deal with ByteDance retaining less than 20%.
But the ownership details varied in other news articles, with Reuters reporting in this story that three investors, including Oracle and private-equity firm Silver Lake, would buy 50% and a CNBC article naming Abu Dhabi-based MGX as an investor.
Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had told him to “go ahead with” the sale after they discussed it.
"This is going to be American-operated all the way," Trump was quoted in a Reuters story as saying at the ceremony, which was not attended or acknowledged by ByteDance.
Vance said although the plans faced Chinese resistance, they would keep TikTok operating and protect Americans' data privacy.
Under the planned arrangement, Oracle would reportedly oversee the app’s security operations and continue providing cloud computing services for the new TikTok U.S. firm.
TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users and was influential in helping Trump deliver his message before the last election, was meant to have been sold by January 2025 under a law that has not so far been enforced.
