Amazon Makes Last-Minute Bid for TikTok Days Before Deadline to Sell

Amazon is making a last-minute bid to acquire TikTok, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. The bid comes as ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, is fast approaching the April 5 deadline to sell its U.S. business or face being banned.

Interestingly, The Times reported “various parties” involved “do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously.” That stands out, considering Amazon is the fourth biggest company in the world, with a market cap of more than $2 trillion.

It is also worth noting that Amazon is bidding on the entire app, not just TikTok’s U.S. operation. TikTok is required by U.S. law, signed by President Joe Biden last year, to sell only its American business; the chief concern lawmakers had was that TikTok could act as a stealth spyware app for China’s communist government, as ByteDance is required by Chinese law to hand over any user data the government asks for.

President Trump, on his first day back in the White House, gave ByteDance a 75-day extension on its looming ban in an effort to work out a deal. It is unclear how much Amazon’s bid is worth. A fair price for TikTok, Wedbush Securities Managing Director Dan Ives told TheWrap, would be a record-setting $300 billion. TikTok has said it has 170 million users in the U.S.

In March, President Trump said the U.S. government was talking to four bidders about buying TikTok, without naming specific companies or investors. The Information reported on March 13 that Oracle had taken the lead in acquiring TikTok’s U.S. operation. And complicating matters has been the Chinese government’s adamant stance it will not approve any TikTok sale.

TikTok is operating like it will still be around post-April 5, whether a deal is struck or not: the company hired former Warner Bros. Discovery comms boss Nathaniel Brown as its Global Head of Corporate Communication last week.

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