Amazon has made an eleventh hour bid to acquire embattled social media platform TikTok, according to the New York Times. The news comes on the eve of the deadline for TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to either divest or shut down its US operations.
TikTok was given a stay of execution by US President Donald Trump when he came to power. But as the April 5 deadline approaches, it is still not clear how this story will end. ByteDance has said it would rather close TikTok in the US than sell it. But that hasn’t stopped several firms being linked with a possible bid. Among them are Elon Musk, Oracle, MrBeast and a consortium led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely.
If Amazon was able to get control of TikTok, it would become an even more formidable player in the social content and commerce space. Leaving aside its interests in Twitch and Amazon Prime Video, it is easy to see potential synergies between Amazon’s ecommerce business and TikTok’s growing influence in the retail arena.
It is possible that Donald Trump will extend the deadline again. There have been reports that he might link discussions about the future of TikTok in the US to ongoing negotiations about tariffs. He may choose to soften tariffs on China in return for TikTok being sold to a company that he looks on favourably.
