(Reuters) -President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced an agreement between the U.S. and China to keep TikTok operating in the United States, a breakthrough in months-long talks between the two biggest economies as they seek to defuse a wide-ranging trade war that has unnerved global markets.
The deal was similar to one discussed earlier this year, Reuters reported, and requires TikTok’s American assets to be transferred to U.S. owners from China’s ByteDance, potentially resolving a saga that has lingered for nearly a year.
“We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump has said, ahead of an extended December 16 deadline to sell or shut down the short video app in the U.S.
TikTok, which is used by about 170 million Americans, has attracted several suitors. Here is a list of potential buyers as well as parties that had expressed interest in TikTok:
The basics of the new deal, also similar to one discussed in April, include that ByteDance will keep the single largest ownership stake at 19.9%, just under a 20% threshold, Reuters has reported.
The consortium that would hold 80% includes ByteDance’s current shareholders Susquehanna International Group (SIG), General Atlantic, and KKR.
ORACLE, ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ AND SILVER LAKE
New investor Andreessen Horowitz and Oracle are also likely to take a stake, Reuters reported.
Cloud computing company Oracle, which has a market value of over $871 billion, provides the main cloud computing services for running TikTok’s U.S. operations, and controls servers that host American users’ data, making it a key figure in managing the company’s daily operations.
Investment firm Silver Lake would invest as well under the new deal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Tech giant Amazon, which has a market valuation of over $2.5 trillion, had made a last-minute offer to buy TikTok’s assets outside of China.
A U.S. administration official confirmed Amazon had sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
ONLYFANS FOUNDER IN PARTNERSHIP WITH A CRYPTOCURRENCY FOUNDATION
A startup run by Tim Stokely, founder of adult content social media site OnlyFans, had partnered with a cryptocurrency foundation to submit a late-stage plan to acquire short video app TikTok from Chinese owner ByteDance, the two said.
The intent to bid was sent this week to the White House by Zoop, billionaire Stokely’s new company, and the Hbar Foundation, which manages the Hedera cryptocurrency network’s treasury.
Marketing platform AppLovin, which has a market value of $204 billion, submitted a bid for TikTok assets outside of China.
“Our proposal is an enhancement to the current deal being discussed with Oracle and investors, but it is a bigger deal. One where we would merge with all of TikTok global outside China,” AppLovin Co-founder and CEO Adam Foroughi said in a statement.
“We have not had substantive conversations with investors, including none with Steve Wynn, and don’t need investment for the deal, but might welcome it from the right strategics,” Foroughi added.
AI-powered search engine startup Perplexity AI has proposed acquiring TikTok’s U.S. operations.
In January, Reuters reported that Perplexity revised the merger proposal it had submitted to TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to create a new entity combining Perplexity and TikTok U.S.
The proposal calls for the U.S. government to own up to 50% of the new company upon a future initial public offering.
REDDIT CO-FOUNDER AND FRANK MCCOURT
Entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt announced in March that Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and a venture capitalist, has joined his bid to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations as a strategic adviser specializing in social media.
McCourt said Ohanian will help promote the Project Liberty bid to buy the U.S. assets of TikTok, which he calls “The People’s Bid,” because of plans to run the app on technology that lets users control how their data will be used and shared.
ENTREPRENEUR JESSE TINSLEY AND MRBEAST
A group of investors led by tech entrepreneur and founder of Employer.com, Jesse Tinsley, including YouTube personality MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, made an all-cash bid worth $30 billion for TikTok’s U.S. operations.
Trump told reporters in January that Microsoft was in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app. The Windows maker has a market value of $3.78 trillion.
During his first term, Trump ordered TikTok to separate its U.S. version from ByteDance, citing national security concerns.
Microsoft emerged as a top bidder in 2020, but the talks soon collapsed, and Trump’s divestment push ended a few months later when he left office.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh, Zaheer Kachwala, Arsheeya Bajwa and Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona)
