TikTok has signed a deal to sell its U.S. operations to a group of investors led by Larry Ellison, the billionaire Trump ally whose family media and entertainment empire has just expanded.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
TikTok’s CEO says a deal has been signed to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to a group of primarily American investors. One of the key billionaires behind the new entity is Larry Ellison, chief executive of technology company Oracle. Ellison is a longtime ally of President Trump. NPR’s Bobby Allyn joins us to discuss what this new ownership means for the Ellison family’s growing business empire and the future of social media. Hi Bobby.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Hey, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So the American version of TikTok is about to find new owners. Tell us more about this offer.
ALLYN: Of course. I obtained an internal memo sent by TikTok CEO Shou Chew, and it explains exactly what’s going on here. And he says a new U.S. company will be created to monitor TikTok’s data feeds and how the algorithm works. So, you know, what’s amplified and what’s not. And the group that will oversee all of this will be a private equity firm called Silver Lake, the UAE-backed MGX fund, and Oracle, the software and data center company run by Larry Ellison. Now, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance in Beijing will still hold a minority stake, and existing TikTok investors will also receive equity in this deal. But Larry Ellison, you know, is going to be a really central figure in all of this.
RASCOE: So how did Ellison become a key player in TikTok’s future?
ALLYN: Yeah. You know, when lawmakers in Washington really started putting pressure on TikTok over its ties to China, Ellison saw an opportunity. He really stepped up and offered to migrate all of Americans’ TikTok data to Oracle servers. Oracle moved its headquarters to Austin, and TikTok began calling its project to isolate China from US TikTok users Project Texas, as a nod to Oracle’s importance. So that’s the technical side. But politically, he has been a staunch supporter of President Trump for years. And in his second term, Ellison became one of the most visible leaders in Trump’s orbit. And, you know, Ayesha, it’s worth mentioning here that this is a late career move for Ellison. He’s 81, but TikTok is now part of the stable of the Ellison family’s media and entertainment empire.
RASCOE: What do the Ellisons have control over now?
ALLYN: Yeah. Larry Ellison’s son, David, is CEO and chairman of Paramount Skydance, which controls CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+ and many others. And now the Ellisons are launching a hostile bid to try to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery. And to get a sense of their political leanings, I mean, just look at Paramount’s acquisition this year of The Free Press, a right-wing online site run by Bari Weiss that has positioned itself as the leading anti-woke voice on the Internet.
RASCOE: Well, I mean, back to TikTok, could there be any changes in store for U.S. users with the app now under the control of the Ellison family?
ALLYN: Yeah, and that’s the big question here. The internal memo that I received about the deal, you know, says that this new entity led by Ellison means that Ellison and these other investors are going to control content moderation on TikTok. So what’s allowed, what’s not, what you and I can post. And the free speech experts I spoke with said it was no small feat. I mean, I started covering TikTok, Ayesha, six years ago when her problems started. And at the time, everyone was very concerned about the idea that China might censor what’s allowed on the app. But now TikTok watchers are wondering if the Ellisons’ new content rules will make other people feel like their voices are being censored. So that’s definitely something we’ll be monitoring in the future.
RASCOE: This is Bobby Allyn from NPR. Thank you so much.
ALLYN: Thank you, Ayesha.
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