According to two people familiar with the situation, private equity company Blackstone is considering making a modest minority stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations. In an attempt to acquire TikTok’s U.S. business, Blackstone is considering joining the current non-Chinese owners of ByteDance, a Chinese parent company, who are led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic. The team has become the front-runners.
According to their proposal, TikTok’s U.S. activities would be spun off into a different company, and Chinese ownership of the new company would be reduced to less than the 20% threshold mandated by U.S. law.
Blackstone, TikTok, and General Atlantic all declined to comment. A request for comment was not answered by Susquehanna. Due to a regulation that was passed last year with strong bipartisan support and mandated that ByteDance divest TikTok by January 19 or risk being banned on national security grounds, the future of the app that is used by over half of all Americans has been uncertain.
After the Supreme Court upheld the ban in January, TikTok momentarily went offline in the United States, but it came back to life a few days later after the U.S. President. After taking office, Donald Trump delayed the law’s implementation until April 5.
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