TikTok deal hits roadblock as China pushes back amid Trump’s tariffs
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A deal to spin off TikTok’s US operations has been put on hold after China signalled that it would not approve the deal following President Donald Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on Chinese imports.
Multiple companies have been linked with an acquisition of the app in the US, including Amazon and most recently AppLovin. The latter has confirmed its interest, with CEO Adam Foroughi claiming the ad tech firm’s proposal is the “best possible solution”.
The aim of any proposed deal would be to create a US based entity that is majority-owned by American investors, with Bytedance only holding less than a 20% stake.
According to Reuters, such a deal had already been largely approved by key parties before it was hit with blocks from China. However, it currently remains unclear which company has secured a deal.
Pushback
“(We are) still in talks with the U.S. government, but no agreement has been reached, and the two sides still have differences on many key issues,” ByteDance said in a statement.
The friction from China appears to come from a desire to see that any sale must comply with Chinese laws and procedures, with the Chinese Embassy wanting to avoid actions that violate “market economy” principles.
For now it appears that talks are ongoing but many differences remain.
President Trump recently extended the deadline for ByteDance to sell by a further 75 days, which would push the deal into June. He hinted that cooperation from China could see tariff reductions made possible.
