Donald Trump, who absolutely wants to force the Chinese group bytedance, owner of Tiktok, to sell his American subsidiary, will he achieve his ends? “We are negotiating with four different groups, and many people are interested,” said Donald Trump to a question on the Chinese social sharing network on Sunday, March 9 aboard Air Force One. “It could be” that an agreement be reached soon, he also said, also believing that the four proposals “are good”.
On January 20, barely invested, President Donald Trump granted a period of 75 days to Bytedance, Chinese parent company of Tiktok, to sell his American activities. Otherwise the very popular platform is supposed to be prohibited in the United States, according to a law passed last year. The delay could however be extended.
Frank McCourt, owner of OM, in the running
A few weeks earlier, Donald Trump had tried to place the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, recently his special advisor, Elon Musk, on the list of endeavors expected to buy the Tiktok application, in vain. The richest man in the world and owner of the social network X said in late January that he had not made any offer. “I didn’t make an offer for Tiktok. And I don’t even know what I would do if I had Tiktok,” he said.
And if Bytedance does not seem interested in a sale, other contenders are on the ranks, driven by Donald Trump, who insists on the uncertain future of the application if it was not sold to an American company. Among the projects in the running is the “Project Liberty” created by the property developer and owner of the Marseille Olympique Frank McCourt. The artificial intelligence start-up Perplexity AI for its part subjected to Bytedance a proposal to merge with the American subsidiary of Tiktok, which would valorize the social network at least $ 50 billion. Other personalities have expressed their interest, including the influencer MrBeast and Steven Mnuchin, secretary of the Treasury during the first term of Donald Trump.
The entry into force of the law against Tiktok in the name of national security on January 19 had led to inaccessibility to the social network for a few hours for the 170 million users in the United States. Apple and Google removed the service from their mobile application shops (therefore preventing updates and new downloads), but presented it on February 13 after a reassuring letter from the General Pam Bondi prosecutor.