On March 30, US President Donald Trump stated that he would reach an agreement with ByteDance, the parent company of the Chinese short video platform TikTok, on the sale of this short-video application with 170 million monthly active users in the United States before the April 5 deadline. He said there are many potential buyers who are very interested in TikTok, and he expressed his hope to see TikTok continue to exist.
Previously, Reuters reported on March 28, citing two insiders, that Blackstone Group, the largest publicly traded investment management firm in the United States, intends to join a consortium led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, both shareholders of ByteDance, to make a small investment in TikTok's US business.
The report said that this consortium is currently a strong contender in the bidding for TikTok's US business. It proposes to spin off TikTok's US business into an independent entity and dilute ByteDance's stake in the new entity to below 20%, meeting the requirements of the US "sell-or-ban" law.
According to legal documents disclosed in a US court last year, ByteDance's equity structure consists of the following parts: global institutional investors hold approximately 58%; founder Zhang Yiming holds about 21%; ByteDance employees (including 7,000 Americans) hold the remaining 21%.
The US Congress passed legislation with an overwhelming majority in 2024, requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok to non-Chinese companies before January 19 of this year, or face a ban. After taking office in January, current US President Trump signed an executive order, granting a 75-day grace period for the "sell-or-ban" law until April 5. During this period, the US Department of Justice is prohibited from taking any enforcement actions based on this law and is not allowed to penalize any entities that do not comply with the law.
