TikTok Sold Like a Hot Potato, Now Owned Mostly by Everyone Except ByteDance
KEY POINTS
- ā¢TikTok briefly disappeared from U.S. app stores just over a year ago due to regulatory pressure.
- ā¢President Biden signed a 2024 divest-or-ban law forcing ByteDance to reduce its ownership to 19.9%.
- ā¢Silver Lake, Oracle, MGX, and others now collectively own 80.1% of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC.
After vanishing briefly from U.S. app stores like a digital Houdini, TikTok reemerged under the illustrious new identity of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. Thanks to President Bidenās 2024 divest-or-ban law, ByteDance was forced to trim its stake to a stingy 19.9%, leaving the other 80.1% slice of this American tech cake to investment giants Silver Lake, Oracle, and Abu Dhabiās MGX. Each managing investor grabbed a neat 15% chunk, while the leftover crumbs went to smaller players like Michael Dell's family investment firm, because whatās a high-stakes tech breakup without an awkward family cameo? The dealāapproved on schedule in December with both the US and China playing niceālooks less like a business move and more like a global hostage exchange with spreadsheets.
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TikTokās new ownership is 80.1% an international finance sudoku and 19.9% ByteDance waving sadly from the sidelines. Guess Chinese companies pitched the ultimate āweāre almost outā sale.
ByteDance just turned TikTokās ownership into a math problem no one asked to solve. Spoiler: they barely got a letter grade.
TikTokās new US deal is like a messy group project where everyone gets credit except the original creator.
Source: Theverge | Published: 1/23/2026 | Author: Richard Lawler
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