Amazon has made a last-minute bid to acquire TikTok, just days before the video platform faces a potential ban in the US if it fails to find a buyer for its US business.
That’s according to The New York Times, which reported on Wednesday (April 2), citing three people familiar with the bid, that the US e-commerce giant has offered to buy “all of TikTok.”
The report comes shortly after US President Donald Trump told the media that he expects a deal to rescue the platform will arrive before the deadline on Saturday (April 5). Trump reportedly met with senior White House officials on Wednesday to discuss TikTok’s fate.
“There’ll be a deal with TikTok,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday (March 30), according to a report at The Hill. “We have a lot of potential buyers,” Trump said, as quoted by Reuters. “There’s tremendous interest in Tiktok… I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”
However, the NYT said several parties involved in the negotiations appear to be dismissing Amazon’s bid as unserious. The offer was reportedly delivered via letter addressed directly to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, one of the sources told the newspaper.
The newspaper said Amazon declined to comment.
Amazon has previously attempted to replicate TikTok with its own short-form video shopping feature called Inspire. However, the in-app feature was killed off in February, just over a year after it was introduced.
The e-commerce company isn’t the first major retailer to express interest in TikTok. In 2020, when Trump issued an executive order giving the company 90 days to sell its US operations, Walmart partnered with Microsoft and Oracle on a bid to buy TikTok’s US operations from ByteDance. However, the deal ultimately fell through.
Last month Politico reported, citing three people familiar with the discussions, that Oracle is in advanced talks with the White House to run TikTok’s US business, with Vice President JD Vance and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz reportedly leading the talks.
Amazon now joins a group of last-minute suitors. Billionaire Frank McCourt and Jesse Tinsley, founder of payroll company Employer.com, have also reportedly expressed interest. Also on Wednesday, Zoop — a startup run by Tim Stokely, founder of adult entertainment platform OnlyFans — announced its own bid for TikTok’s US operations, claiming it was partnering with cryptocurrency foundation Hedera and had established communication channels with the White House.
“Our bid for TikTok isn’t just about changing ownership, it’s about creating a new paradigm where both creators and their communities benefit directly from the value they generate,” Zoop co-founder RJ Phillips told Reuters.
Meanwhile, private equity firm Blackstone is also reportedly in talks with ByteDance’s existing non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, to inject additional capital to bid for TikTok’s US operations.
Perplexity AI has also reportedly put forward a proposal that would create a new entity combining its operations with TikTok’s US business, potentially allowing up to 50% government ownership following a public offering valued at at least $300 billion.
The reported bids underscore the urgency of a TikTok deal. Then-President Joe Biden passed legislation last year forcing ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban in the US, citing national security concerns.
While the Supreme Court upheld the law earlier this year, Trump, when he came into office, extended the enforcement deadline to April 5 after repeatedly pledging to “save” TikTok, which has about 170 million users in the US.
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