OFFERS FOR TIKTOK
A last-minute proposal made Saturday by the highly-valued start-up Perplexity AI offered a merger with the US subsidiary of TikTok, a source with knowledge of the deal told AFP.
That deal could allow parent company ByteDance a possible solution without selling off the app entirely.
The plan, first reported by US broadcaster CNBC, would create a new joint venture combining the assets of US TikTok and Perplexity AI, which has been backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The proposal did not include a price for the transaction, but the source estimated it would be at least US$50 billion.
Frank McCourt, the former Los Angeles Dodgers owner, has also made an offer to purchase TikTok’s US activity and said he’s “ready to work with the company and President Trump to complete a deal”.
Canadian investor Kevin O’Leary, who is involved in that offer, told Fox News that ByteDance was offered US$20 billion for TikTok’s US operation.
He acknowledged the legal uncertainty over the case, with it remaining an open question whether an executive order by Trump to halt the ban would override the law.
“Congress wrote this law to be virtually president-proof,” warned Adam Kovacevich, chief executive of industry trade group Chamber of Progress.
Sarah Kreps, a professor of government and law at Cornell University, said that “if an executive order conflicts with an existing law, the law takes precedence, and the order can be struck down by the courts”.
With TikTok forced into a shutdown, its US-based rivals Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts could reap benefits.
Thousands of worried TikTok users have protectively turned to Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), a Chinese social media network similar to Instagram.
Nicknamed “Red Note” by its American users, it was the most downloaded app on the US Apple Store this week.
