A spate of tech firms and billionaires have positioned bids for TikTok—together with Amazon and AppLovin individually this week—forward of Saturday’s deadline for China-based ByteDance to promote to a U.S. purchaser.
Now, ABC News is reporting that the Trump Administration is contemplating a leasing deal as a substitute — and the president will signal an govt order Friday to increase the ban deadline.
The leasing choice would let China preserve management of its prized TikTok algorithm, although the U.S. firm holding the lease would have a minority stake, a “supply near the deal” informed the outlet. Oracle would supervise the lease, per NPR. Oracle already offers TikTok with backend tech assist.
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Along with Amazon and AppLovin’s bids this week, formal offers to accumulate the app have been submitted from billionaire and former L.A. Dodgers proprietor Frank McCourt (who teamed up with Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian) in January. AI startup Perplexity additionally submitted a more than $50 billion provide to merge its enterprise with TikTok’s U.S. division.
The TikTok saga has been ongoing since April 2024 when lawmakers involved about U.S. consumer information making its way to the Chinese language authorities handed a regulation to pressure ByteDance to promote TikTok or face a ban within the U.S. Since then, TikTok went dark for its 170 million U.S. users for at some point, earlier than Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline for 75 days.
The 75 days is up tomorrow.
It is a breaking information story and might be up to date.
