• TikTok told employees it signed a deal with investors for a US joint venture, per an internal memo.
• The move will allow TikTok to operate as an independent entity in the US, the memo said.
• The Trump administration earlier said it had blessed a sale of TikTok to an investor consortium.

TikTok reached a deal with a group of investors to form a new joint venture for its US business, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider.

The deal comes more than a year after Congress passed a law that forced its owner, ByteDance, to divest from its US operations or face a ban, because TikTok was deemed a “foreign adversary-controlled” company.

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance had sought recourse through the courts, arguing that the law — the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — violated the First Amendment. In January, the Supreme Court ruled against TikTok and upheld the divest-or-ban law.

Since then, TikTok has been facing a looming deadline to find a US buyer. The app’s future remained in limbo for months as the White House repeatedly extended the deadline and administration officials sought to work out a deal.

In September, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that approved the sale of TikTok’s US operation for around $14 billion.

Trump said at the time that Oracle and Larry Ellison would be part of the deal.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.