The consortium slated to take over TikTok in the US is emerging

Oracle is indeed part of an upcoming deal for a US spin-off of TikTok, The Wall Street Journal reports, as a member of a consortium that also includes Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz. The US and China are finalizing the framework for a deal that would create a new US entity, with American investors holding a roughly 80% ownership stake.

Oracle has long been in the running, along with executives close to the Trump administration including not only members of the Ellison family but also CEO Safra Katz, who served on President Trump’s 2016 transition team.

Andreessen Horowitz, the storied venture capital firm and the largest in the field, also has significant links to the administration in addition to lots of ties to “First Buddy” Elon Musk.

Silver Lake is a major player in the private equity space; it’s incidentally the owner of Endeavor, a big talent agency in the entertainment industry, and took it private in March of this year.

Existing investors in ByteDance, including Susquehanna International, KKR, and General Atlantic, would also have skin in the game.

The remaining 20% would be owned by Chinese investors.

Under the current structure of the deal, US users would have to download and use a new app, which TikTok is now testing. The entity would have a largely American board, including one member nominated by the US government, the WSJ reports.

The Takeaway

Trump has extended the deadline for a deal until December 16. TikTok engineers would have to recreate the content recommendation algorithms for the new app, licensing tech from ByteDance.