Trump Announces Potential TikTok Deal Involving Fox Corp, Oracle, and Dell Technologies

The Trump administration has hinted at a potential deal regarding TikTok, with President Donald Trump suggesting that media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch could be part of the negotiations. In an interview on Fox News, Trump stated, “A man named Lachlan is involved. Lachlan Murdoch … Rupert [Murdoch] is probably gonna be in the group, I think they’re going to be in the group.”

The president also mentioned Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison and Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell as potential participants. While Trump did not clarify whether he was referring to personal or corporate investments, Deadline reported that Fox Corporation — which owns Fox News and is led by CEO Lachlan Murdoch and chaired by Rupert — is indeed in negotiations to join the investor group backing TikTok’s U.S. spinoff from ByteDance.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a previous appearance on Fox News, announced that an agreement has been reached, but not yet signed, for TikTok’s U.S. operations to be restructured under majority American ownership. Leavitt added that Americans will hold six of seven board seats in the restructured TikTok, and the app’s algorithm will be controlled within the U.S., according to Bloomberg.

Leavitt further stated, “So all of those details have already been agreed upon, now we just need this deal to be signed and that will be happening, I anticipate, in the coming days.”

Bloomberg also reported that new investors in TikTok are expected to include Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz, and private equity firm Silver Lake Management. It is suggested that Oracle will assume responsibility for the app’s security and safety, with ByteDance reportedly retaining less than 20% ownership of the spun-off company.

A federal bill passed last year aimed to ban TikTok in January, shortly before Trump resumed office. The app briefly faced shutdown in the U.S., but Trump repeatedly extended the deadline for ByteDance to sell the app to new owners. Trump stated on Friday that China’s president Xi Jinping had approved the deal, and TikTok issued a statement thanking both leaders “for their efforts to preserve TikTok in the United States.”

“ByteDance will work in accordance with applicable laws to ensure TikTok remains available to American users through TikTok U.S.,” the company said.