Amazon makes bid to buy TikTok as deadline looms

Amazon has made a bid to acquire TikTok as the popular social media app faces a looming deadline to be divested from its China-based owner or face a ban in the U.S. that could take effect this month.

A Trump administration official told Reuters on Wednesday that the e-commerce giant made a bid to buy TikTok ahead of the looming ban.

The New York Times previously reported, citing three people familiar with the matter, that Amazon placed a last-minute bid to acquire TikTok in its entirety. However, those sources told the outlet the parties involved in the discussions don’t appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously. According to the report, the offer was delivered to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Congress enacted a law last year that would ban apps like TikTok that are owned by entities located in adversarial countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea after a 270-day period in which divestment could occur. President Donald Trump has said he wants to find a way to keep the app operating in the U.S. and signed an executive order extending that divestment window to allow additional time for a deal to come together. His extension gives the company until Saturday to get a deal done.

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FOX Business reached out to Amazon and the company declined to comment on the report that it is interested in buying TikTok.

Other potential suitors for TikTok have included a group called Project Liberty, led by billionaire Frank McCourt and Kevin O’Leary. 

TikTok has resisted the push to sell, in part because of opposition from the Chinese government, which has the authority to block the sale of China-based firms.

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FOX Business’ Charlie Gasparino reported that there is a TikTok deal on the table that would create a new company with majority ownership in the U.S., though investors are concerned about liability provisions in the law that bans apps like TikTok that could take time to address and require an additional delay.

Under the proposed deal, TikTok’s Chinese owners would retain a minority stake of less than 20% under the new corporate structure. The app’s source code would remain what it was created with by its Chinese ownership, though it would be monitored in the Oracle cloud to prevent spying.

TikTok’s price tag under that proposal would be $40 billion with the current source code included, or $20 billion if that is removed from a potential deal.

Reuters contributed to this report.