TikTok announces it has finalized deal to establish US entity, sidestepping ban

TikTok’s future in the US had been unclear, with Congress passing a law to ban the app unless it found a US buyer. Photograph: Matt Slocum/AP

TikTok announced on Thursday it had closed a deal to establish a new US entity, allowing it to sidestep a ban and ending a long legal battle.

The deal finalized by ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, sets up a majority American-owned venture, with investors including Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX owning 80.1% of the new entity, while ByteDance will own 19.9%.