From the “please not this again” department comes the news that China is looking to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to (who else?) Elon Musk.
According to Bloomberg, Chinese officials are “evaluating” this option as TikTok gets increasingly close to getting banned in the U.S.
TikTok tried to fend off the ban, which goes into effect on Jan. 19, through legal means, with no luck so far. To stop the ban, ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, would have to find a buyer for TikTok’s U.S. arm, as President Biden’s administration deemed Chinese state influence over TikTok too large to continue operating in the U.S.
This, apparently, is where Musk could step in. According to Bloomberg, Beijing officials “strongly prefer” to keep TikTok under ByteDance ownership, but if that proves impossible, one option is to sell it to Musk, who could consolidate it under his X brand.
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All of this is still very preliminary, and it’s unclear whether any real talks between Musk and ByteDance even happened. Also – officially at least – the Chinese government only controls ByteDance’s Chinese subsidiary Douyin, and cannot influence what ByteDance does outside of China.
Last April, Musk did publicly say that “TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the X platform,” as this is “contrary to freedom of speech and expression.” And President-elect Donald Trump, who is on very good terms with Musk these days, recently said he wants to “keep TikTok around.”
TikTok ban update: Trump wants to ‘keep this sucker around’
Musk acquired X (then Twitter) in October 2022 after a highly publicized back and forth, in which he gave up on the acquisition midway but ultimately closed the deal, paying $44 billion for the platform. X’s user base has been on a decline since the acquisition, and advertising revenues have plummeted.
It’s unclear whether a potential acquisition of TikTok by Musk would go in a similar fashion, or if the site would even be up for sale publicly — perhaps it’s most likely for China and ByteDance to arrange everything behind closed doors. Musk isn’t the only potential byer, however. Microsoft, for example, tried to acquire TikTok earlier, and failed.
