Amazon among bidders to acquire TikTok as deadline looms for a buyer to be found
Since the expiry of the weekend for Tiktok to find a buyer approaches, the bidders for the social media site in a short vote are accumulating.
Amazon and, separately, a consortium led by the founder of Onlyfans Tim Stokely are the last to throw the hats in the ring for Tiktok. The site must face a deadline of April 5 to reach an agreement to find a Chinese buyer threatened to be banned from the United States.
US officials raised security problems on China’s app ties, which Tiktok and owner Bytedance denied. Trump administration officials are meeting on Wednesday to discuss various options for Tiktok.
The Zoop startup, managed by Stokely, founder of the social media site of adult content, collaborated with a cryptocurrency foundation to present an advanced plan to make an offer for Tiktok, the two told Reuters on Wednesday.
An American administration official confirmed that Amazon had sent a letter to the vice -president JD Vance and the secretary of the Howard Lutnick trade department. Amazon refused to comment, while Tiktok and Bytedance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Amazon’s actions increased by about two percent after Tiktok’s last minute news.
Amazon has long to host ambitions for an internal social media network that could help him sell more goods and appeal to a younger audience. He purchased the video of video live in 2014 for almost $ 1 billion on the United States review site and Goodreds books in 2013 as part of his efforts to build a practicable social network.
Amazon also developed and tested a video and a short -shaped photographic feed similar to Tiktok called Inspire who closed at the beginning of this year.
The President of the United States Donald Trump declared last month that his administration was in contact with four different groups on the sale of the platform, without identifying them.
The private equity company Blackstone is discussing to unite the non -Chinese shareholders of Bytedance, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing to Fresh Capital to make offers for the US activities of Tiktok, reported Reuters last week.
The company of US risk capital Andreessen Horowitz is also in negotiations to add external funding to buy Chinese investors of Tiktok, as part of an Oracle and other American investors led to carve out for bytedance, according to the Financial Times reported.
The interviews led by the White House provide for the intention to eliminate an American entity for Tiktok and dilute Chinese property in the new activity below a 20 % threshold required by the US law, Reuters reported last month.
The New York Times reported Amazon’s involvement for the first time on Wednesday. Various parts that have been involved in talks do not seem to take Amazon’s offer seriously, according to the Times.
The future of the app used by almost half of all Americans is in the air by a law of 2024, approved with a overwhelming bipartisan support, has requested bytes to give up Tiktok by January 19th. Trump, his first return day in office as president, signed an executive order that placed the country’s ban on the country for 75 days.
Washington officials said that Tiktok ownership for Bytedance makes it to the Chinese government and hypothesized that Beijing could use the app to conduct influence operations against the United States and collect data on the Americans.
