White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared on Fox News today and said that an agreement has been reached — but not signed — that would see TikTok’s U.S. operations spun out under majority American ownership.
Leavitt said Americans will hold six of seven board seats in the restructured TikTok, and the short-form video app’s algorithm will be U.S.-controlled.
“So all of those details have already been agreed upon, now we just need this deal to be signed and that will be happening, I anticipate, in the coming days,” Leavitt said.
Bloomberg also reports that a senior White House official said new investors in TikTok will include Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, and private equity firm Silver Lake Management, with Oracle responsible for the app’s security and safety. Current owner ByteDance would reportedly own less than 20% of the spun off company.
President Donald Trump repeatedly extended the deadline of a U.S. bill that bans TikTok if it isn’t sold to new owners. He said Friday that China’s president Xi Jinping had approved the deal.