China and the U.S. have agreed on a sale of TikTok’s operations to a group of mostly American investors, creating a new U.S. version of the app.
According to Semafor, the agreement is expected to close this week, marking the end of a prolonged dispute between the social media platform, and the US and China.
The consortium of investors is led by Oracle and Silverlake, both of which, as well as MGX, each have 15 percent stakes in TikTok’s US business, while ByteDance will retain just below 20 percent. Additional investors include Susquehanna and Dragoneer.
The deal wrapping this week will meet the Trump administration’s Jan. 22 deadline, following an executive order that permitted a 12-day stay on TikToik’s federal ban.
It’s unknown how much ByteDance got for the sale of its U.S. business. JD Vance previously estimated the deal to be worth an anticipated $14 billion. It’s also unclear what was decided on TikTok’s algorithm, which has also been a contentious factor between the US and China.
In December, TikTok CEO Shou Chew said that the new entity will “control data protection, content moderation and algorithm security and that the entity would be ‘governed by a new seven-member majority-American board of directors,’” Semafor writes.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the U.S. told the outlet that “China’s position on TikTok has been consistent and clear. I have nothing new to share at the moment.”