‘TikTok America,’ Amazon, and other rumors about who might buy TikTok

After President Donald Trump pushed back a deadline for banning TikTok in January, the 75-day delay will run out on April 5th, but there's still no word on a deal that could satisfy the law by shifting control of TikTok away from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

The Information reports that later today, Trump plans to announce a plan for TikTok America," a new company with 50 percent ownership by unnamed new US investors, a one-third stake for existing ByteDance investors, and a 19.9 percent share for ByteDance. It would apparently license TikTok's algorithm from ByteDance.

That follows reports by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and CNBC, which added Amazon and AppLovin to a list of potential or interested buyers along with Oracle, Blackstone, former LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, and Perplexity.

AppLovin is a mobile tech company worth about $100 billion that uses data and AI to collect user information and target ads, and the WSJ says that its pitch to the Trump administration is that it could solve national security concerns and unleash economic growth as a job creator." Amazon could be interested in TikTok's power to drive shopping interest, after shutting down its own Inspire feed of short, vertical videos in January.

All of that is, of course, assuming TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, wants to sell.

A reportedly favored plan for Oracle, Blackstone, Silver Lake, and other investors to make a deal is still rumored as a potential solution, but the New York Times notes that it's still unclear whether that will satisfy the TikTok ban-or-divest law's requirements.
With Trump also planning to announce new tariff plans on Wednesday, the WSJ reports Chinese officials are waiting to hear the details before considering anything else. Trump will reportedly meet with aides today to discuss the proposals, or the idea of trying to extend the deadline again.