Amazon Bids To Aquire TikTok As Sales Deadline Approaches
TikTok faces a potential shutdown in the U.S. after Saturday, April 5, if its Chinese parent company doesn’t reach an agreement to sell a controlling interest in the hugely popular video app.
Will TikTok go dark? With just days to go before the deadline set by President Trump, it’s not clear what will happen next for TikTok, which claims to have 170 million users in the U.S.
Trump, who in his first term sought to force a sale of TikTok over national security concerns, now wants to keep it legal. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” he said in December, citing his belief that the app helped drive younger Americans to vote for him.
On Sunday, Trump told told reporters on Air Force One, “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.” Regarding discussions about a sale of a stake in TikTok, he said, “We have a lot of potential buyers. There’s tremendous interest in TikTok,” adding, “The decision is gonna be my decision.”
Meanwhile, Amazon has made a late bid to purchase TikTok, a person familiar with the ongoing White House-led discussions to identify a non-Chinese buyer for the social media app told NBC News.
The bid, first reported by The New York Times, arrived this week, via a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Given the last-minute timing, days before a Saturday deadline to stave off a ban of the app in the U.S., the bid is not being treated as serious, said the source, who was granted anonymity to share details of private negotiations.
