March 13 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration is getting about $10 billion in fees from investors in a recently completed deal to take control of the U.S. business of TikTok, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, struck a deal in January to create a majority-owned U.S. joint venture that would protect U.S. data, to avoid a U.S. ban on the short video app used by 200 million Americans.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will protect US user data, apps and algorithms through data privacy and cybersecurity measures. It disclosed few details about the division.
Vice President JD Vance said in September that the new US company would be worth about $14 billion.
The payment is part of a deal through which administration-friendly investors won control of TechTek’s US operations from ByteDance, the WSJ said. This is on top of investments already made to create a new agency to run the app in the US
Investors Oracle, Silver Lake, Abu Dhabi’s MGX and other backers paid about $2.5 billion to the Treasury when the deal closed and will make a number of future payments up to $10 billion, according to the Journal.
TikTok and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
According to the WSJ, administration officials said the fee was justified, citing Trump’s role in saving TikTok’s U.S. operations and guiding negotiations to finalize the deal with China while addressing lawmakers’ concerns about national security.
Earlier this month, Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bundy came under fire from retail investors seeking to reverse the U.S. takeover of TikTok’s two social media rivals. The president’s approval of a deal by the company’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to create a majority American-owned joint venture.
(Reporting by Joby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Aaron Quiver)
