Amazon has made a last-minute offer to acquire TikTok, which faces a potential ban in the United States unless it is sold by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The offer was made in a letter to officials involved in the ongoing negotiations, but Amazon has declined to comment on the report.
President Donald Trump has downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger of being banned in the United States, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business by a Saturday deadline.
US media reported that Trump plans to meet with top White House officials on Wednesday to discuss possible solutions.
The Times added that its sources said the parties involved in the talks did not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously.
According to reports, the most likely solution would see existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company.
Additional US investors, including Oracle and Blackstone, the private equity firm, would be brought on to reduce the proportion of Chinese investors.
Much of TikTok’s US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company’s chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally.
The hugely popular video-sharing app, which has over 170 million American users, is under threat from a law that passed overwhelmingly last year and orders TikTok to split from its Chinese owner ByteDance or face a ban in the United States.
Motivated by widespread belief in Washington that TikTok is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government, the law took effect on January 19, one day before Trump’s inauguration.
But the Republican president quickly announced a delay that has allowed it to continue to operate; that delay is set to expire on April 5.
“We have a lot of people that want to buy TikTok,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One recently.
Any deal to divest TikTok from ByteDance will require the approval of Beijing, and Trump has said he may offer to reduce tariffs on China as a way to get Beijing’s approval for the sale.
Trump, though he supported a ban in his first term, has lately become the app’s greatest defender, seeing it as a reason more young voters supported him in November’s election.
The lineup of bidders includes an initiative called “The People’s Bid for TikTok,” launched by real estate and sports tycoon Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative.
Others in the running are artificial intelligence startup Perplexity and a group that includes internet personality MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson.
AFP
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