Trump Fan May Join Bid For TikTok After White House 'Invite'

Top US officials are due to meet with US President Donald Trump later today (April 2) to make decisions on the future of TikTok’s operations in America.

Trump will talk with aides about bids by groups of American investors that want to buy the US unit of the popular short-video app from its Chinese parent company Bytedance, according to a report by Reuters.

Marc Andreessen was approached to ramp up the preferred US bid (Wikipedia pic).

US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is the latest investor keen to get a slice of the bid by Oracle and other US partners, the FT says, which noted that co-founder Marc Andreessen is a vocal supporter of the US leader. Blackstone may also be part of a minor investor in the bid.

ALSO SEE: India Shares Sink on US Tariffs Criticism, Xi Urges Trade ‘Tango’

US Vice-President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, national security adviser Mike Waltz and National Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard have been asked to attend the meeting in the Oval Office, according to CBS News and Reuters.

Trump said on Sunday that a deal would be done with ByteDance to sell the app, used by 170 million Americans, before the April 5 deadline, when it is due to be banned.

There has been uncertainty about the video app after a law took effect on January 19 that requires ByteDance to divest its ownership because of national security concerns. After taking office, Trump gave TikTok a 75-day reprieve by signing an executive order that delayed enforcement of the law that requires.

‘TikTok helped me win’

Talking to reporters on Sunday while on Air Force Once, Trump said he would “like to see TikTok remain alive.” He previously indicated that he might consider reducing tariffs against China if the country approves the sale.

During his first term, Trump tried to ban TikTok on national security grounds, which was halted by the courts before his administration negotiated a sale of the platform that eventually failed to materialize. He changed his position on the app during last year’s presidential election and has credited the platform with helping him win more young voters.

“I won the young vote by 36 points. Republicans generally don’t do very well with the young vote,” he said Sunday. “I think a lot of it could have been TikTok.”

Trump has also said he may extend the deadline, if necessary. But no details have been revealed on cost and other elements such as the type of deal being negotiated with Bytedance.

The FT said two sources involved in the bid said “there was no consensus on the price tag” yet, but the US arm was likely to be valued on its earnings. And global revenue, excluding China, totalled $36 billion last year, with the US providing about a third of that.

TikTok and ByteDance have not publicly commented on the talks. It’s also unclear if ByteDance has changed its position on selling TikTok, which it said early last year it does not plan to do.

A range of potential bidders have come forward in the past few months.

Some analysts have been sceptical of Trump’s prediction, saying it is more likely that TikTok will be an issue on the table when US officials discuss a possible trade deal with Beijing.

Chinese officials are anxious to reduce tariffs on their exports, which could greatly undermine an economy still plagued by a post-Covid slowdown. So they may prefer to have TikTok as further leverage when the two sides, or the two presidents, meet, they say.

Reuters reported on March 24 that White House-led talks with investors were coalescing around a plan for the biggest non-Chinese backers of ByteDance to increase their stakes and acquire the video app’s US operations, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.

Jeff Yass’ Susquehanna International Group and Bill Ford’s General Atlantic, both of which are represented on ByteDance’s board, are leading discussions with the White House on the plan, the sources said. Private equity firm KKR is also participating, one said.

Under the plan proposed by existing investors, software giant Oracle would continue to house US user data and provide assurances that the data is not accessible from China, one source said.

But the source said the White House wanted to add “additional firepower” to the preferred bid, hence the approach to Andreessen, who was an early investor in Facebook and put $400 million into Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter. Blackstone was another asset manager approached, but is reportedly assessing at a smaller investment.

The latest revelations come at a time when the White House has been accused of “playing the role of an investment bank”.