Amazon Steps in With Last-Minute Bid To Acquire TikTok Ahead of Looming U.S. Ban

President Trump is weighing numerous proposals with key administration officials.

AP/Jacquelyn Martin
Fans Sarah Baus, left, and Tiffany Cianci support TikTok outside the Supreme Court on January 10, 2025. AP/Jacquelyn Martin

In an eleventh hour bid before the looming ban of TikTok in America this weekend, Internet behemoth Amazon has made an offer to purchase the video-sharing app from Communist Chinese-based company ByteDance.

The proposed bid was made Wednesday afternoon via an offer letter addressed to Vice President Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to the New York Times. The amount offered in Amazon’s proposal was not immediately clear. Shares of the digital retail giant saw a volume spike of 1.3 percent after the announcement.

The fate of the hugely popular app, which is used by nearly half of Americans, has been in limbo ever since a bipartisan law was passed in 2024 which gave ByteDance until January 19 of this year to fully divest TikTok.

President Trump was reported earlier Wednesday to be considering a final proposal for TikTok holding a meeting in the Oval Office with a number of key administration officials to mull over proposals from potential investors that include Oracle, Black Stone, and venture capital firms.

As the January deadline hit, Mr. Trump granted a 75-day reprieve of enforcement of the ban in favor of finding a solution to keep Tik-Tok running in America. He said at the time that he would be in favor of a “bidding war” for any potential acquisition.

“I like bidding wars because you make your best deals,” he told a gaggle of reporters while aboard Air Force One after issuing the extension. 


The New York Sun

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