TikTok is reportedly dividing its US staff between two separate entities as it restructures its business under pressure from the “divest-or-ban” law.
Some US staff received notices last week that they won’t join the new joint venture led by Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX. Instead, they’ll work for a separate entity called TT Commerce & Global Services LLC that remains under ByteDance ownership, Business Insider reported recently, citing a memo sent to affected employees.
As part of the new joint venture, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, TikTok plans to retrain its recommendation algorithm exclusively using US user data, according to earlier reports. That deal is expected to close on January 22.
Business Insider reported that workers focused on products tied to TikTok’s global operations will stay with ByteDance, while employees handling data protection and algorithm security will move to the joint venture entity.
TikTok CEO Shou Chew told staff in December that business lines staying with ByteDance would include “certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing,” according to the report.
The arrangement follows months of negotiations over how ByteDance could satisfy a law requiring it to divest its US assets. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which specifically targets TikTok and ByteDance, was passed by a bipartisan majority in Congress and signed by then-President Joe Biden.
TikTok is required to sell its US operations or face an effective ban on operating in the US. The law’s original deadline was in January 2025, forcing the app offline briefly for American users. TikTok has about 170 million users in the US.
US President Donald Trump brought the app back online during his opening days in office, granting a 75-day pause to let potential American buyers put together offers. When talks stalled, Trump pushed the deadline back (after pushing it back multiple times) to December 16, 2025, and ordered the Department of Justice not to enforce the law until January 23, 2026, in order to give time for the deal to be finalized.
Financial terms of the deal with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX were not disclosed. In September 2025, US Vice President JD Vance said the proposed transaction would value TikTok’s US operations at “around $14 billion.”
At the time, Reuters noted that the price tag is “far below some analyst estimates”. In June 2025, Morningstar analysts predicted that a deal for TikTok’s US business would be “north of $50 billion.”
Under the proposed structure, Oracle, MGX and Silver Lake would each own 15% of the new joint venture. Affiliates of existing ByteDance investors would hold about 30%. An unnamed group of new investors would get 5%, and ByteDance would retain just under 20% to comply with the divestment law’s ownership requirements, the AP previously reported, citing a memo.
Music Business Worldwide
