Retail behemoth Amazon on Wednesday made an offer to buy TikTok just a few days of an April 5 deadline when the social network must either be sold or shut down, reports The New York Times.
The report said various parties who have been involved in the talks “do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously.” The bid came via an offer letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, according to the report’s sources. Multiple interested parties are scrambling to plead their cases for a TikTok purchase.
The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act has been in effect since January 19. The law requires TikTok to be sold to a non-Chinese company, and ByteDance was given nine months in which to do so. However, the company chose to appeal the ruling instead of searching for buyers. ByteDance argued the law was unconstitutional, as it violated the First Amendment. Supreme Court rejected that argument, saying that as a Chinese company, ByteDance does not have First Amendment rights.
ByteDance has repeatedly said it would not sell TikTok, as the code was quite complex and it would need to be uncoupled from ByteDance’s software tools. The Chinese government has opposed a sale, as the proprietary TikTok algorithm would need to be included in a sale. It is possible that now the ban has been upheld, they may reconsider selling the app.
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Justice to not enforce the law for a 75-day period. That period will expire on Saturday, April 5, and a sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a U.S. company must be in place by that time or the app will be shut down again.
Offers have been made from companies like Oracle and Perplexity, as well as individuals such as Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary, Employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley, and others. Trump is set to meet with White House officials today to discuss the situation. He has said that he will make the final decision as to the app’s future.
While Trump could decide to make a deal that brings on multiple investor, including Oracle and Blackstone, such a deal would not be an actual sale, meaning such a deal may not meet the requirements of the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
