Oracle and Silver Lake Will Lead TikTok Takeover

A US White House official uncovered some details of a TikTok takeover agreement agreed by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to media reports, Oracle and private equity company Silver Lake will be key investors.

The source noted Trump would sign an executive order certifying the deal is legal and is confident China has approved the deal, but added more paperwork is required. Certain regulatory reviews in China and the US are still required. The complete investor group has not yet been disclosed.

The new owners of US-based TikTok are set to take around an 80% stake and would lease a copy of the platform’s algorithm from ByteDance, with Oracle overseeing a revamp and operating and monitoring the business. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison would be involved in retraining TikTok, and the company would store user data on US-based servers. ByteDance is to divest its interest to less than 20% and have no access to user data or control over the algorithm in the US.