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Influence Weekly Roundtable - What Brands Need to Watch For Now That TikTok's Ownership Has Changed- 34 Experts Give Their Take

TikTok’s long-running U.S. ownership saga is finally over, but for advertisers and brands, the uncertainty hasn’t disappeared. It has simply changed shape.

Author

Nii Ahene
February 10, 2026

After years of regulatory standoffs, temporary shutdowns, and shifting deadlines, TikTok has finalized a deal that keeps the platform live for roughly 170 million American users. The same app remains on phones, creators are still posting, and campaigns are still running.

What’s changing isn’t the interface, but the infrastructure. Under the new U.S. joint venture, TikTok’s operations now sit under American ownership, U.S.-based data oversight, and a recommendation algorithm that will be retrained on U.S. user data. As detailed in recent reporting, those shifts are unlikely to arrive as dramatic product updates. Instead, they’re expected to surface gradually through content discovery, creator economics, commerce, moderation, and brand safety.

This roundtable brings together 34 professionals across agencies, creator platforms, technology companies, and brand-side operators to examine what comes next. With TikTok’s U.S. deal now in place, the real conversation isn’t about what changes overnight, but what may quietly shift over time.

You're probably optimizing for the wrong things.

Most agency founders think buyers care about revenue growth or client roster. Then they get to the table and discover what actually drives multiples, usually too late.

Three people who've done the deals will tell you what matters:

Nii Ahene has sat on both sides. After selling his agency, he led acquisitions at Tinuiti, evaluating dozens of agencies and closing deals worth $750M total.

Kevin Simonson sold Metric Digital to Wpromote. He knows what he'd change about positioning and what didn't matter at all.

Andreas Roell runs M&A advisory firm Evros Group. He's guided dozens of sales and knows why some get premium multiples while others struggle.

February 19, they're breaking down the real factors: What kills deals? What's different about 2026? Where do founders waste time?

No fluff about "building enterprise value." Just specific decisions that move your multiple.

Worth joining if you're thinking about an exit or curious what your agency would actually sell for.