Chinese officials are in preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok’s operations in the US to billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app be unable to avoid an impending ban, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. The report estimates the value of TikTok’s US operations at between $40 billion and $50 billion.
Beijing officials prefer that TikTok remains under the control of parent Bytedance, the report said, citing sources.
TikTok’s US operations could either be sold through a competitive process or an ar rangement by the govt, the report said, suggesting that the future of the app is no longer solely in ByteDance’s control.
China’s govt has a “golden share” in ByteDance, which several members of US Congress have said gives the govt power over Tiktok.
Under one scenario, Musk’s social media platform X would take control of TikTok US and run the business together, the report said. Officials have yet to reach a consensus about how to proceed, according to Bloomberg News. TikTok has previously said that the govt’s stake “has no bearing on ByteDance’s global operations outside of China, including TikTok.”
Musk, X, and China’s cyberspace and ministry of commerce are yet to comment.
Last week, the US Supreme Court seemed inclined to uphold a law that would force a sale or ban TikTok in the US by Jan. 19, over national security concerns about China.
This is a Reuters’ story