Leading by Chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch, Fox Corp. is one of the investors negotiating to acquire stocks in an engraved Tiktok US company.
President Donald Trump revealed his involvement in Murdock’s Tiktok contract on Sunday as part of his administration’s months of efforts to “save” Tiktok by bringing a property structure in accordance with US law. In an interview aired on Fox News’ Sunday Briefing, the president said that Lachlammurdoch and his father Rupert “maybe they’ll join the group, they’ll join the group.” Trump also said that Oracle founder billionaire Larry Ellison and Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell are joining the mix as Tiktok’s US owners.
Fox Corp. representatives did not respond to requests for comment. The value of the transactions that form Tiktok US is unknown, and so is the proportion of stocks that each investor potentially owns.
Trump “will be signing an executive order later this week to approve the proposed transaction,” Axios reported Monday. The Trump administration wants to collect “billions of dollars” of fees from U.S. Tiktok investors for brokering an agreement with China, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Under US law, which came into effect on January 19, 2025, bipartisan support for the fear passed with overwhelming bipartisan support represents a national security threat to the United States because of Chinese ownership. It is illegal for US companies to host or distribute tiktocs as long as they are controlled by the bystanders of their Chinese parent company. The new Tiktok US ownership structure reduces ownership of ordinance deadlines based on the 20% threshold specified in the law.
Trump told reporters on Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had approved a deal with Tiktok, and last week China’s top trade negotiators told reporters that in principle the two countries agreed on a trading framework. Trump delayed enforcement of the fourth or van law until December 16th, as he worked to finalize the contract last week.
Bytedance and Tiktok have not commented on the details of Tiktok US investment structure or its technology operations. In a statement Friday, bytedance said: “We appreciate President Xi Jinping and President Donald J. Trump for their efforts to maintain Tiktok in the United States.
If Fox Corp. acquires a share in Tiktok US, it is not clear whether it will treat it as a passive investment or whether it will attempt to integrate some of its assets (such as the free streaming service Tubi) with the Tiktok app. Earlier this month, Lachlan Murdoch won a succession match with his brother and will retain his voting power for Fox Corporation and News Corporation.
The Wall Street Journal, reported last week by The Wall Street Journal, will see Tiktok’s US operations being 80% owned and managed by an investor consortium, including Oracle, Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz. Additionally, current ordinance investors, including Susquehanna International, KKR and General Atlantic, will become part of the ownership group. According to the Journal Report, the new Tiktok US Company will have a US-controlled board of directors, including members appointed by the US government. Oracle already provides computing and data management services to Tiktok in the US
Based on the Trump administration’s proposal, bytedance will license Tiktok’s content commenting algorithm to US companies, operating it separately from the Chinese-controlled version of the technology.
