Photo Credit: Peter Kaminski / CC by 2.0
Trump says a group of wealthy people are interested in buying TikTok. Bloomberg says it’s the same group that came close to reaching a deal before.
On the heels of extending the deadline by which China-based ByteDance must divest its TikTok assets in the U.S. or face a nationwide ban, President Trump asserts that a group of “very wealthy people” are prepared to make a deal. A new report from Bloomberg says it’s the same investor consortium—including Oracle, Blackstone, and Andreessen Horowitz—whose bid was stalled previously by trade tensions stemming from Trump’s steep tariffs on Chinese goods.
Over the weekend, Trump said he had found a contender to buy TikTok from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. That deal is still contingent on approval from the Chinese government. “We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way. I think I’ll need probably China approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it,” said Trump in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. “It’s a group of very wealthy people.”
Sources close to the situation confirmed to Bloomberg that the group cited by Trump was the same one involving Oracle and Blackstone that reportedly came close to reaching a deal with ByteDance back in April. But that deal was put on the backburner in light of Trump’s decision to impose widespread tariffs, which led to China withholding any potential approval.
The potential agreement would have granted new investors 50% of TikTok’s U.S. business, which would be spun off into a new company. Existing TikTok investors in the U.S. would also own about 30% of the business, leaving ByteDance with around 20% stake in the company. This, in theory, would allow TikTok to meet the ownership requirements of the U.S. law passed last year.
“We have another 90-day extension, and it’s just to continue to work out this deal and make sure that TikTok stays on for the American people,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday, who added that discussions with China were continuing “at the highest level.”
However, it’s still unclear if the Chinese government will allow a sale to move forward. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told the press in Beijing on Monday that China has “reiterated its principled position” regarding a TikTok sale, indicating that its views on the topic remain unchanged.
The U.S. law, signed by then-President Joe Biden last year, instructed ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets by January 19 or face a ban over concerns related to national security. Trump has since extended the deadline three times to give ample time to secure a deal. The latest extension moves the deadline to mid-September.
