President Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that four potential buyers are in negotiations to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations, with a deal possibly coming “soon.” He stated that he was in discussions with four different groups, but did not specify the names of the bidders, simply commenting that “all four are good.”
TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., faces an April 5 deadline to finalize a deal for its U.S. business, or face a ban under a bipartisan law passed during the Biden administration. The U.S. is TikTok’s most significant market, and its U.S. operations were valued at around $50 billion last year. ByteDance also operates a similar service in China called Douyin.
Trump had previously pushed back an original deadline of January 19 to avoid a lengthy blackout of the app in the U.S. He has repeatedly expressed openness to striking a deal and indicated that he believed a transaction could happen in the coming month. A major condition Trump has raised during the negotiations is that the U.S. should hold a 50% stake in TikTok as part of the deal.
ByteDance has not shown any inclination to sell off its U.S. operations. However, the company’s CEO Shou Chew met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December and attended his inauguration this year. ByteDance has taken steps to address national security concerns raised by U.S. lawmakers, hoping to continue operating in the country.
ByteDance is currently valued at more than $400 billion, with key investors like SoftBank Group Corp. holding stakes in the company. Despite the uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s U.S. operations, ByteDance has been expanding its presence in e-commerce through its popular video platforms.
China’s government would also need to approve any sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations. Beijing’s stance has been unfavorable so far, and officials have considered a possible deal involving Elon Musk, who owns the X social network. However, Musk has stated that he is not interested in acquiring TikTok.
So far, the public bidders include a group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, a proposal featuring tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley and YouTube star MrBeast, and a merger offer from San Francisco-based Perplexity AI. Trump has also mentioned Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle Corp., in connection with the negotiations, especially since Oracle has worked with TikTok on hosting U.S. user data.
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