It looks like Amazon has made a surprise last-minute move to acquire TikTok, just as the April 5 deadline inches closer. That’s the date by which TikTok must break away from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or get banned in the U.S.
Back in 2024, the Biden administration passed a law forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok, citing concerns that Chinese ownership could let Beijing access American user data or run influence campaigns. The law was supposed to kick in by January 2025. The law did actually kick in on January 19th, and for about 14 hours on January 20, TikTok was indeed offline in the U.S., leaving millions of users unable to access the app. After President Trump took office, he delayed enforcement by 75 days, giving TikTok some breathing room. That grace period is now almost up.
Now, Amazon submitted a bid through an official letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Although most stakeholders aren’t taking the offer seriously. Still, the news was enough to boost Amazon’s stock by 1.3%, so the market clearly noticed.
Amazon isn’t the only one that is interested in TikTok. Oracle, Blackstone, and even some wild cards like MrBeast and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian have also expressed interest in acquiring the short-form video app. Some are proposing full takeovers, while others are suggesting joint ventures or partial ownership setups to make the deal work.
ByteDance, for its part, doesn’t want to sell, but if the U.S. sticks to the ban, it might not have a choice. Meanwhile, Trump has left the door open for another extension, but also says he wants to get this wrapped up before April 5. So it’s unclear whether we’re heading for a deal or a full-blown ban, with nearly half of Americans still using the app.
Source: Reuters
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