{"id":19363,"date":"2025-09-17T06:04:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T06:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=19363"},"modified":"2025-09-17T06:04:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T06:04:04","slug":"washington-beijing-strike-deal-to-keep-tiktok-running-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=19363","title":{"rendered":"Washington, Beijing strike deal to keep TikTok running in US"},"content":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced an agreement between the US\u00a0and China to keep TikTok operating in the United States, with three sources familiar with the matter saying the deal was\u00a0similar\u00a0to one discussed earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The agreement requires TikTok’s American assets to be transferred to US\u00a0owners from China’s ByteDance, potentially resolving a saga that has lingered for nearly a year.<\/p>\n

A deal for the popular social media app, which counts 170 million US\u00a0users, would represent a breakthrough in months-long talks between the two biggest economies as they seek to defuse a wide-ranging trade war that has unnerved global markets.<\/p>\n

“We have a deal on TikTok … We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump said at a White House briefing, without providing further details. The announcement comes a day before a September 17 deadline to sell or shut down the short video app.<\/p>\n

Later in the day the White House extended that deadline until December 16. The White House declined to provide any further details on the agreement with China.<\/p>\n

The delay will give ByteDance another 90 days to finalize an agreement to transfer TikTok’s American assets to US\u00a0owners, suggesting much work needs to be done to close the complex transaction.<\/p>\n

The US\u00a0entity will have an American-dominated board, the Wall Street Journal reported, with one member designated by the US\u00a0government.<\/p>\n

Read:\u00a0Walking a tightrope between China and US<\/p>\n

The idea takes a page from a recent national security agreement inked by the Trump administration that allowed Nippon Steel\u00a0to\u00a0buy US\u00a0Steel\u00a0after allowing the US\u00a0to name a board member, in addition to having a Golden Share.<\/p>\n

Any agreement may require approval by the Republican-controlled Congress, which passed a law in 2024 during the Biden Administration that required TikTok’s divestiture due to fears that its US\u00a0user data could be accessed by the Chinese government, allowing Beijing to spy on Americans or conduct influence operations through the app.<\/p>\n

The basics of the\u00a0new deal, also similar to April, include that ByteDance will keep the single largest ownership stake at 19.9%, just under a 20% threshold, two of the sources said. The consortium that would hold 80% includes ByteDance’s current shareholders Susquehanna International Group (SIG), General Atlantic, and KKR\u00a0as well as new investors such as Andreessen Horowitz. Oracle is also likely to take a stake, and the Wall Street Journal reported that Silver Lake would invest as well.<\/p>\n

While the broad terms are expected to remain the same, the sources did say they do not know what the final deal would exactly look like, given the potential for last-minute changes.<\/p>\n

US\u00a0Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday the commercial terms of the deal had, in essence, been done since around March with just a few details left to be ironed out.<\/p>\n

“This deal wouldn’t be done without proper safeguards for US\u00a0national security,” Bessent said. “It seems as though we were also able to meet the Chinese interest.”<\/p>\n

CNBC reported Tuesday that the deal is expected to be closed within the next 30 to 45 days, and that the agreement will include existing investors in TikTok’s China-based parent, ByteDance, and new investors.<\/p>\n

The details are in line with Reuters’ reporting\u00a0in April\u00a0that the deal would spin off TikTok’s US\u00a0operations into a new company based in the U.S. and majority-owned and operated by US\u00a0investors.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has declined to enforce the law due to worries it would anger TikTok’s huge user base and disrupt political communications, instead extending the divestiture deadline on three separate occasions.<\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0TikTok divestment and tariffs dominate US-China talks in Spain<\/p>\n

Trump, who has credited TikTok with helping him win re-election last year and has 15 million followers on his personal account, was expected to extend the deadline for the fourth time. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.<\/p>\n

Tariffs and TikTok<\/p>\n

A deal for TikTok, which had been in the works in the spring, was\u00a0put on hold\u00a0after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump’s announcements of tariffs on Chinese goods.<\/p>\n

Washington has said that TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government.<\/p>\n

But the company has said US\u00a0officials have misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the US\u00a0on cloud servers operated by Oracle, while content moderation decisions that affect American users are also made in the US.<\/p>\n

CNBC reported on Tuesday that Oracle will keep its cloud deal with TikTok. Reuters reported earlier this year that the White House was working on a plan to\u00a0tap Oracle, along with a group of outside investors, to control the app’s operations.<\/p>\n

As part of the plan, Oracle would have been responsible for addressing national security issues, Reuters had reported.<\/p>\n

Oracle shares rose 1.5%.<\/p>\n

A framework\u00a0agreement\u00a0was reached by officials from both countries on Monday. A final confirmation on the deal is expected on Friday in a call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

Trump said in March that his administration was in touch with\u00a0four different groups\u00a0on TikTok’s sale. Microsoft\u00a0Amazon\u00a0billionaire Frank McCourt and a consortium led by the founder of OnlyFans have been among the bidders, according to reports.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced an agreement between the US\u00a0and China to keep TikTok operating in the United States, with three sources familiar with the matter saying the deal was\u00a0similar\u00a0to one discussed earlier this year. The agreement requires TikTok’s American assets to be transferred to US\u00a0owners from China’s ByteDance, potentially resolving a saga that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}