US business of TikTok: Negotiations are underway with four interested parties

According to US President Donald Trump, his government is negotiating with four groups that want to take over the US business of the popular video app TikTok. This was reported by the news agency Reuters, citing statements made by Trump on board the US presidential aircraft Air Force One. According to the report, there is no favorite for the takeover and all four offers are "good". Trump has also claimed that a deal could be done soon – without giving any further details. So far, however, Tiktok's parent company ByteDance has denied that it will sell at all.

A whole range of interested parties

TikTok has actually been banned in the USA since President Donald Trump took office at the end of January. However, the new US president has assured the tech companies responsible for enforcing the ban that there will be no consequences for non-compliance with a corresponding law. The US Congress had actually voted with both parties in favor of the Chinese ByteDance Group having to sell TikTok's US business, but this did not happen. Otherwise, the app would have been blocked, but Trump effectively prevented this. Criticism of this has also fallen silent.

More or less behind the scenes, various groups have since positioned themselves as takeover candidates for TikTok. These have allegedly even included Elon Musk, although the influential Trump confidant and owner of the short messaging service X later denied such reports. However, Microsoft, Amazon and Oracle have reportedly come into play as interested parties. YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, the owner of French soccer club Olympique Marseille and even the AI search engine Perplexity are also reportedly in the running. However, TikTok has not yet indicated that a sale is actually being prepared.

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(mho)