Trump signs order declaring TikTok sale ready and values it at $14 billion
Washington (Reuters) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday declaring that his plan to sell Chinese-owned TikTok’s U.S. operations to U.S. and global investors will address the national security requirements in a 2024 law.
The new U.S. company will be valued at around $14 billion, Vice President JD Vance said, putting a price tag on the popular short video app far below some analyst estimates.
Trump on Thursday delayed until January 20 enforcement of the law that bans the app unless its Chinese owners sell it amid efforts to extract TikTok’s U.S. assets from the global platform, line up American and other investors, and win approval from the Chinese government.
The publication of the executive order shows Trump is making progress on the sale of TikTok’s U.S. assets, but numerous details need to be fleshed out, including how the U.S. entity would use TikTok’s most important asset, its recommendation algorithm.
“There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law,” Vance told reporters at an Oval Office briefing.
Trump’s order says the algorithm will be retrained and monitored by the U.S. company’s security partners, and operation of the algorithm will be under the control of the new joint venture.
Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had indicated approval of the plans. “I spoke with President Xi,” Trump said. “We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing and he said go ahead with it.”
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. TikTok did not immediately comment on Trump’s action.
Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users, with helping him win reelection last year. Trump has 15 million followers on his personal TikTok account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.
“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said.
He said that Michael Dell, the founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies; Rupert Murdoch, the chairman emeritus of Fox News owner Fox Corp and newspaper publisher News Corp, and “probably four or five absolutely world-class investors” would be part of the deal.
