The US is slated to receive around $10 billion as a fee from investors as part of the recently completed deal for China’s ByteDance Ltd. to sell the American operations of the social video app TikTok to a consortium of US investors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
A federal law required TikTok to either be shut down in the US or sold to domestic owners at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term. But the president used a series of executive actions to extend that deadline and the White House helped broker the sale to a group led by Oracle Corp. and Silver Lake Management LLC.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Trump had previously alluded to such a fee.
“The United States is getting a tremendous fee-plus — I call it a fee-plus — just for making the deal and I don’t want to throw that out the window,” Trump said in September.
The new entity — known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC — will be responsible for moderating content on TikTok and protecting the data of US users.
It will be governed by a new, seven-member, majority-American board. TikTok’s Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew — who will continue running ByteDance’s most valuable asset globally — will have a seat on the board. Adam Presser, who was TikTok’s head of operations, trust and safety, will helm the US venture as its CEO.
