*

Trump administration working on plan to tap Oracle, US

investors

to take over TikTok, sources say

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ByteDance will retain a minority stake, source says

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Talks involve ByteDance's U.S. investors, source says

(Updates with original sourcing, details about investors)

By Dawn Chmielewski, Kanishka Singh and Milana Vinn

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The

administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is working on a

plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company

Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively

take control of the app's operations, two people with knowledge

of the discussions told Reuters.

Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok's

China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the

company, but data collection and software updates would be

overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of

TikTok's Web infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters.

The terms of the deal are fluid, the sources said, and

are likely to change. One source said the full scope of the

discussions was not yet set and could include the U.S.

operations as well as other regions.

National Public Radio on Saturday reported deal talks

for TikTok's global operations, citing two people with knowledge

of the negotiations. The White House and Oracle had no immediate

comment.

The deal being negotiated anticipates participation from

ByteDance's current U.S. investors, according to the sources.

Jeff Yass's Susquehanna International Group, General Atlantic,

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and Sequoia Capital are among

ByteDance's U.S. backers.

Representatives for TikTok, ByteDance investors General

Atlantic, KKR, Sequoia and Susquehanna could not immediately be

reached for comment.

Others vying to acquire TikTok, including the investor

group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and another involving

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as the YouTube star Mr. Beast, are

not part of the Oracle negotiation, one of the sources said.

Under the terms of the deal, Oracle would be responsible

for addressing national security issues. TikTok initially struck

a deal with Oracle in 2022 to store U.S. users' information, to

alleviate Washington's worries about Chinese government

interference.

TikTok's management would remain in place, to operate

the short video app, according to one of the sources.

The app, which is used by 170 million Americans,

was taken offline

temporarily for users shortly before a law that said it

must be sold by ByteDance on national security grounds, or be

banned, took effect on Jan. 19.

Trump, after taking office a day later,

signed

an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the

enforcement of the law that was put in place after U.S.

officials warned that under ByteDance, there was a risk of

Americans' data being misused.

Officials from Oracle and the White House held a meeting on

Friday about a potential deal, and another meeting has been

scheduled for next week, NPR reported.

Oracle was interested in a TikTok stake "in the tens of

billions," but the rest of the deal is in flux, the NPR report

cited the source as saying.

Trump has said he "would like the United States to have a

50% ownership position in a joint venture" in TikTok.

NPR cited another source as saying that appeasing Congress

is seen as a key hurdle by the White House.

Free speech advocates have opposed TikTok's ban under a law

passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former President Joe

Biden.

The company has said U.S. officials misstated its ties

to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user

data are stored in the United States on cloud servers operated

by Oracle while content moderation decisions that affect

American users are also made in the U.S.