TikTok CEO's memo tells employees it will be sold in January

"TikTok has finalized the deal to sell its US business, according to reports from Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, and CNBC. In an internal memo seen by the outlets, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew wrote that the deal will close on January 22nd, with Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi's MGX owning 45 percent of the company, while its China-based parent company ByteDance will hold 20 percent."

"Throughout the year, President Donald Trump granted TikTok a series of extensions to come up with a deal to sell its US-based operations. The US and China agreed on a "framework" for a deal in September, leading to yet another extension that expired on December 16th. Reports indicate that the US-based TikTok will use an algorithm based on the one created by ByteDance, but it will be retrained on US user data and controlled by Oracle."

TikTok's U.S. business will be sold, with Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi's MGX owning 45 percent and ByteDance retaining 20 percent; the remainder will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors. The transaction is scheduled to close on January 22nd after months of divest-or-ban pressure, multiple deadline extensions granted by President Donald Trump, and a U.S.-China framework agreement reached in September. Reports indicate the U.S.-based TikTok will use an algorithm based on ByteDance's original model but retrained on U.S. user data and controlled by Oracle; TikTok briefly went dark in the U.S. when the law took effect.

Read at The Verge