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Questions about the future of the popular video sharing app have
continued to linger since a law requiring its China-based parent
company to divest or face a ban took effect on Jan. 19. After
taking office, President Donald Trump gave TikTok a 75-day
reprieve by signing an executive order that delayed enforcement
of the statute until April 5.
Vance, along with National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, were
tapped by Trump to find an approved buyer. On Sunday, Trump told
reporters aboad Air Force One the administration was in talks
with “four different groups” about TikTok and that a deal could
come soon.
TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have not publicly
commented on the talks. It’s also unclear if ByteDance has
changed its position on selling TikTok, which it said early last
year it does not plan to do.
After it made those comments, ByteDance and TikTok launched a
legal challenge against the federal law, which was passed with
bipartisan support in Congress and signed by then-President Joe
Biden. In January, the two companies lost their case at the U.S.
Supreme Court.
NBC News reported that Vance did not offer details on who the
potential buyers could be but noted that some issues could push
a final agreement past the April 5 deadline.
“We’d like to get it done without the extension,” Vance told the
news outlet. “I think the question is, what is the equity
ownership of the new joint venture? How do you do the contracts
for all the investors, the customers, the service providers? …
The deal itself will be very clear, but actually creating those
thousands and thousands of pages of legal documents, that’s the
one thing that I worry could slip.”
Trump has previously said the deadline on a TikTok deal could be
extended further if needed. He has also proposed terms in which
the U.S. would have a 50% stake in a joint venture. The
administration hasn’t provided details on what that type of deal
would entail.
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