Overview

• President Trump told Fox News on June 29 that a group of “very wealthy people” is prepared to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations and will be identified in roughly two weeks.
• ByteDance has received a third extension under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act to divest TikTok’s U.S. business by September 17 or face a ban.
• The likely buyers include the Oracle-Blackstone-Andreessen Horowitz consortium whose earlier takeover bid was stalled by U.S.–China trade tensions.
• Approval from Chinese President Xi Jinping and the broader Chinese government remains the key hurdle for finalizing any sale.
• The divestiture effort responds to congressional concerns over the Chinese government’s potential access to American user data and content manipulation.