Amazon.com has put in a last-minute bid to buy TikTok, a US administration official said on Wednesday, just days ahead of an April 5 deadline for the short-form video app to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the country.
US President Donald Trump is expected to discuss TikTokโs fate at an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday and consider a final proposal related to the app, a White House official told Reuters on Tuesday.
Amazon declined to comment, while TikTok and its parent company ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reutersโ requests for comment. Shares of Amazon rose 1.3 per cent in a volume spike after the report.
The US tech and e-commerce giant is the latest name to pop up in a list of reported buyers. Trump said last month that his administration was in touch with four different groups about the sale of the platform, without identifying them.
Private equity firm Blackstone is discussing joining ByteDanceโs existing non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing fresh capital to bid for TikTokโs US business.
US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is also in talks to add new outside investment that will buyout TikTokโs Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by Oracle and other American investors to carve it out of ByteDance, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.