Trump considers extension as TikTok shutdown deadline approaches

Julia Love, Bloomberg News on Jan 18, 2025

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Hours before a deadline that would require TikTok to be divested or shut down, the incoming White House administration offered a lifeline to the widely used video-sharing app — in contrast to last-minute criticism from the outgoing Biden administration.

President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday he would “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the law, giving Chinese-owned parent company Bytedance Ltd. more time to find a buyer. Trump also told NBC in an exclusive interview that he’d probably announce it on Monday, after he is sworn in.

The law passed in April gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to divest TikTok or be shut down. After the Supreme Court upheld the law on Friday, TikTok warned it would “go dark” on Sunday without any clear signals from the current White House occupant, President Joe Biden.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who on Friday said that the timing of the Supreme Court ruling dictates that they leave this decision to their successor, called TikTok’s threat to shut itself off “a stunt” in a statement on Saturday.

But Trump has said he doesn’t want to shut down the app, which he credits with helping him improve his standing with young voters, and is working to figure out a way around the law. The law passed with broad Republican support and was designed to address national security concerns.

“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate,” Trump said, according to NBC. “We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation.”

ByteDance can agree to sell the app’s U.S. operations — a path the company has rejected — or wait to see if Trump indeed gives them a reprieve.

He’d need to prove to Congress that there’s a viable path forward, that “significant progress” has been made and that legal agreements are in place to close a deal with ByteDance in that new time frame.

The platform was among the topics Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed during a pre-inauguration conversation on Friday, Trump officials said.

Finding a buyer for TikTok would be a challenge, not just because ByteDance has balked at the idea of selling but because of the expected price tag. Few companies or individuals could likely afford TikTok, which is estimated to be worth as much as $50 billion.

Perplexity bid

Perplexity AI submitted a bid to ByteDance Ltd., to merge with its U.S. operations and create a new entity, a person with knowledge of the matter said Saturday. The structure would allow most of ByteDance‘s existing investors to retain their stakes, according to CNBC, citing a person familiar.

Perplexity AI, an artificial-intelligence search-engine startup, started 2024 with a roughly $500 million valuation and ended the year worth about $9 billion, CNBC said.

A merger with TikTok could give Perplexity access to a vast user base and a wealth of data that could feed its AI-driven search engine. TikTok’s burgeoning e-commerce operations would also be a potential complement to Perplexity’s efforts to get people to shop on its platform.

Even so, the deal would be unusual — and very difficult to pull off — for a business of Perplexity’s age and size. Funders typically back startups like Perplexity with an eye to an exit, such as a sale or an initial public offering—rather than the kind of complex financial maneuvers that a merger with TikTok would entail.

Another possibility is a billionaire acquirer, such as Elon Musk — whom the Chinese government is already evaluating as a potential new owner — or a team of investors, like Frank McCourt and Kevin O’Leary, who have publicly trumpeted their desire to take control of the app.

TikTok could also strike a deal with an American tech giant like Oracle Corp. or Amazon.com Inc., both of which TikTok already does business with. Many of the other logical buyers, like Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, are already mired in antitrust litigation, making them unlikely suitors.

Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew posted a video to the service a few hours after the Supreme Court ruling.

“I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to work with us to find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States,” he said. “This is a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship.”

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(With assistance from Rachel Metz.)