By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
With ByteDance based in China, it will have to comply with the Chinese regulators before going ahead with the TikTok sale.
With less than three weeks on the timeline for TikTok to sell its U.S. and other international businesses, the parent company ByteDance seems to have come to a conclusion on the possible buyer.
According to news outlet CNBC, TikTok has chosen a bidder for its U.S., New Zealand and Australian businesses. It further outlined that the expected sale price ranges between $20 and $30 billion.
However, the Chinese government might not let things go as the United States government anticipated.
As CoinSpeaker earlier reported, China through the Ministry of Commerce issued a new set of regulations that may halt the proposed acquisition of TikTok North America’s operations. The ministry of commerce in conjunction with the Ministry of Science and Technology formulated, adjusted, and published a catalog of technologies that prohibit or restrict exports.
With ByteDance based in China, it will have to comply with the Chinese regulators before going ahead with the TikTok sale.
TikTok Caught Between China and U.S. Trade War
Essentially, the Chinese government might have come into the rescue of its companies, and perhaps ready to deal with the U.S, counterparts head-on. The bigger picture is slowly emerging, whereby the China-United States Cold War is clearly evident more than ever.
The likely chosen bidder by ByteDance to acquire its overseas assets is going to come from either Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL), or from the partnership between Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).
Walmart emerged as an interested party last week and ended up teaming up with an existing contender. As a result of the partnership, Walmart anticipates to be the minority shareholder of TikTok if the partnership wins the bid.
On the other side, Oracle remains optimistic to win the bid putting into perspective that it might be backed by President Donald Trump, who has a close tie with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
The China-United States supremacy battle has yielded several casualties including the resignation of TikTok’s CEO Kevin Mayer last week.
“In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for. Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company,” Mayer said.
“I understand that the role that I signed up for – including running TikTok globally – will look very different as a result of the U.S. Administration’s action to push for a sell-off of the US business,” he further explained.