TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. business to three American investors —Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX— ensuring the popular social video platform can continue operating in the United States.
The deal is expected to close on Jan. 22, according to an internal memo seen by The Associated Press. CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees in the memo that ByteDance and TikTok have signed binding agreements with the three investors.
TikTok已签署协议将其美国业务出售给三家美国投资者——甲骨文、银湖资本和MGX，确保这款热门社交视频平台能在美国继续运营。
据美联社获得的内部备忘录显示，该交易预计将于1月22日完成。TikTok首席执行官周受资在备忘录中告知员工，字节跳动和TikTok已与这三家投资者签署具有约束力的协议。
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/tiktok-signs-deal-to-sell-u-s-unit-to-american-investors-including-oracle-and-silver-lake
Half of the new TikTok U.S. joint venture will be owned by a consortium of investors — among them Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX will each hold a 15% share. Another 30.1% will be held by affiliates of existing ByteDance investors and 19.9% will be retained by the China-based ByteDance, according to the memo.
The U.S. venture will have a new, seven-member majority-American board of directors, the memo said. It will also be subject to terms that “protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security.”
U.S. user data will be stored locally in a system run by Oracle.
TikTok’s algorithm — the secret sauce that powers its addictive video feed — will be retrained on U.S. user data to “ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation,” the memo said. The U.S. venture will also oversee content moderation and policies within the country.
备忘录称，TikTok的算法——其令人上瘾的视频推送功能背后的秘诀——将基于美国用户数据进行重新训练，以"确保内容推送不受外部操控"。这家美国合资企业还将负责监督该国境内的内容审核和政策制定。
The deal marks the end of years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States. After wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if it did not find a new owner in the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go dark on the law’s January 2025 deadline. For a several hours, it did. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration tries to reach an agreement for the sale of the company.
Three more executive orders followed, as Trump, without a clear legal basis, continued to extend the deadline for a TikTok deal. The second was in April, when White House officials believed they were nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a new company with U.S. ownership that fell apart after China backed out following Trump’s tariff announcement. The third came in June, then another in September, which Trump said would allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States in a way that meets national security concerns.
这笔交易标志着美国这个广受欢迎的视频分享平台多年来命运未卜的状态终于结束。在国会两党多数议员通过法案（并由乔·拜登总统签署）规定若TikTok无法找到替代中国字节跳动的新所有者就将面临美国禁令后，该平台原定将按照法案规定的2025年1月期限停止运营。期间有数小时确实无法访问。但唐纳德·特朗普总统上任首日就签署行政令维持其运营，同时其政府试图达成出售协议。
由于缺乏明确法律依据，特朗普又接连颁布了三道行政令延长TikTok交易期限。第二道发布于四月，当时白宫官员认为即将达成协议将TikTok剥离为美资控股的新公司，却因特朗普宣布关税政策后中方退出而告吹。六月出台第三道行政令，九月再颁第四道，特朗普宣称这些措施能让TikTok以符合国家安全关切的方式继续在美运营。
