President Donald Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping joined a call Friday morning to finalize a deal that would sell most of TikTok’s US assets to American investors. The deal, if reached, would conclude a yearslong effort that began during Trump’s first term and became a key factor in broader negotiations between the United States and China in recent months.
On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Li Chenggang, China’s vice minister of commerce, said that a framework TikTok sale agreement had been reached during negotiations held in Madrid between diplomats from both countries. The proposal would allow TikTok to remain operational in the United States. Former President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan bill passed by Congress that went into effect on January 19 banning TikTok unless it ceded control of at least 80% of its assets to US operators. But Trump multiple times paused the ban as his administration sought a sale via a deal with China.
Neither side has disclosed terms of the agreement, because it has not been finalized. But sources familiar with the framework said the proposal would involve investments from a number of US-based venture capital firms, private equity funds and tech companies. Among the investors, who would hold the majority stake in the company, are Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake, the sources said. Chinese investors would own the remaining 20% of the company.
The new consortium would 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.
“Any details of the TikTok framework are pure speculation unless they are announced by this administration,” a senior White House official told CNN. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have not responded to CNN’s requests for comment about the status of a deal.
Continue reading the complete article on the original source
