Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The clock was ticking, but TikTok's US assets are now set to be sold. Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Gideon Long. Good morning. The Chinese owners of TikTok have signed a deal to sell the company's US assets to a joint venture led by American investors.
The move should enable TikTok to avoid a US government ban over its Chinese ownership, which has raised national security concerns. Let's hear more from the BBC's Asia business correspondent, Surinjana Tiwari, who's outside the firm's headquarters in Singapore. Hi, Surinjana.
Hi there.
So this is a joint venture with US investors and investors from elsewhere. Who are they?
That's right. This is something that we've been hearing about for quite some time now. And finally, we have confirmation from TikTok that TikTok will sell part of its business to a mixture of firms, and they include Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX.
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Chapter 2: What are the details of TikTok's US asset sale?
Now, ByteDance is a Chinese company. It's headquartered here in Singapore, where I am. I'm right outside its headquarters. It's also headquartered in Los Angeles. But this almost completely closes an issue over the app's US operations for quite some time now, now that we have this deal.
And it feels like the company and the app will be able to move forward because if they did not divest their US operations, they did face a ban under US law.
But at the same time, ByteDance will retain a stake of nearly 20%.
Crucially, ByteDance will only have the 20% stake, whereas the group of investors will have the majority stake. And, you know, this has become a trade issue between the US and China, largely because lots of US lawmakers, even Trump himself, have raised national security concerns about TikTok.
They ask whether the Chinese government can access US user data from the app and whether the Chinese government can perhaps manipulate feeds by accessing that user data. That's something that ByteDance and TikTok have always denied. But the feeling was, and actually the law stated, that the US operations did have to change ownership in order to continue operating there.
Has any value been put on this joint venture?
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Chapter 3: How does this sale impact US national security concerns?
Do we know what it's worth?
There's still a lot of questions around how this deal will even work. I mean, one of the biggest sticking points is the algorithm, that really valuable bit of technology. Now, earlier in the year, we heard from trade officials between the US and China. They were negotiating how to solve this problem.
But in the end, in September, we heard from both the Chinese government and from Donald Trump that there had been an agreement that ByteDance would license the algorithm. But this is very complicated. It's never been done before with technology. It's not really clear how it works.
Surinjana, thanks for joining us here on Marketplace.
Thanks a lot.
Let's do the numbers. The Bank of Japan has raised its interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.75%. That's the highest level in 30 years, although still far below rates in other major economies. The move will raise the cost of servicing Japan's substantial public debt. Meanwhile, Mexico's Monetary Policy Committee has cut the country's key interest rate by 25 basis points to 7%.
Ukraine will receive a much-needed loan of more than $100 billion from the European Union to fund its fight against Russia. EU leaders agreed the deal in late-night talks in Brussels after failing to adopt an alternative plan to use frozen Russian assets.
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Chapter 4: Who are the investors involved in TikTok's joint venture?
Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, who were uneasy about the Russian asset plan, supported the loan, but only on the condition that they're exempt from it. Danish shipping company Maersk says that for the first time in two years, it's sailed a ship through the Red Sea.
The route, which is a shortcut for trade between Asia and Europe, has been largely off-bounds to commercial shipping due to the Israel-Gaza conflict. People have been out on the streets of Argentina protesting against the government's plans to radically change the labour laws. President Javier Millay wants to make it easier for employers to sack staff.
The measures before Congress would also restrict the right to strike in more areas of the workforce. Now, next year's Soccer World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, of course, but the one after that in 2030 will be co-hosted by Morocco. As part of its build-up to the tournament, it's staging the Africa Cup of Nations, which gets underway this weekend.
24 teams from around the continent will compete for the greatest prize in African soccer. These young Moroccan fans can't wait.
My name is Reem. I'm very excited because I'm ready to see who is going to win the Africa Cup. My name is Radia Massoudi. It's a very big sport and a very important sport for me because I played with it.
I was very young and I love this sport. My name is Youssef Bakar. It's so exciting to see 24 countries compete in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Morocco's Trade and Industry Minister, Riyad Mezour, says the tournament is a great economic opportunity.
This has three pillars in terms of expected results. The first pillar is economic direct impact, so direct injection of capital to build infrastructure, etc. And the second pillar is social heritage, young people, inspiration and practicing sport, which is beneficial for everyone.
And the third pillar is urban regeneration, equipments, modernization, enhanced public transportation, enhanced health services.
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