Alayna Treene, David Goldman
A proposal to save TikTok from going dark in the United States would involve investments from a number of US-based venture capital firms, private equity funds and tech companies. Together, the investors would create a new US-based company that will operate the app domestically, sources familiar with the framework told CNN.
The framework of the agreement, which was hammered out by US and Chinese negotiators in Madrid this week, largely mirrors the deal presented to the President Donald Trump in April, before the president announced steep tariffs on China that scrambled talks with Beijing over the popular social media app.
Among the investors, which are expected to own a roughly 80% stake in TikTok, with Chinese shareholders holding the rest, are Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake, the sources said. The new consortium would also be operated by a majority-US board, including a member appointed by the Trump administration.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on details of the framework discussed in Madrid. The sources cautioned that the framework is still under discussion and could change before Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are slated to speak by phone on Friday, during which the leaders are expected to formally strike the deal on TikTok.
“Any details of the TikTok framework are pure speculation unless they are announced by this administration,” a senior White House official told CNN.
Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison, who last week briefly became the world’s richest person, has widely been rumored to be involved in discussions to buy TikTok’s US assets. Trump in January had said he would champion Ellison, a Trump supporter, buying the app’s US assets.
Ellison’s company already has a relationship with TikTok: Oracle in 2020 began hosting TikTok’s US data, and it briefly reached a deal with the first Trump administration that year to buy TikTok, before that deal was ultimately blocked.
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