President Donald Trump said he's in talks with four potential buyers for TikTok's US business. And that a deal for the app could happen "soon," Bloomberg reports.
He did not specify who the bidders are, nor did he say which option he prefers, only noting: "all four are good." Among the publicly known bidders is a group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. There is also a group that includes tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley and YouTube star MrBeast. There was also a merger proposal from San Francisco-based Perplexity AI.
Trump also mentioned Oracle founder Larry Ellison, and TikTok has already worked with Oracle to host US user data.
TikTok's uncertain future in the US
TikTok was supposed to be blocked on January 19, according to a law passed under the Biden administration. But Donald Trump delayed the ban until April 5. And last week, the US president said he was ready to do it again if necessary. But he believes a deal can be reached as early as next month.
The United States is ByteDance's most important market, and last year the popular video platform was estimated to be worth up to $50 billion in the US. Despite this, the company has shown no interest in selling its US operations, although its CEO Shou Zhu met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December and attended the inauguration earlier this year.
The Chinese government would also have to approve any potential sale. So far, public statements from Beijing are not very favorable. According to Bloomberg, officials considered the possibility of Elon Musk buying the service in the United States. However, the billionaire himself has said that he is not interested in doing so.
