ByteDance weighs non-sale options for TikTok

Bidders have begun circling the social media app as Trump endorsed the idea of a deal involving tech moguls and the U.S.

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Jack Sidders, Lisa Abramowicz and Jonathan Ferro

Published Jan 23, 2025  •  Last updated 5 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to extend the deadline for a sale, providing 75 days for ByteDance, which has publicly refused to sell TikTok, to come up with a solution. Photo by Ashley Landis/Associated Press files

ByteDance is exploring a deal to keep TikTok running in the United States without selling its operations there, according to board member Bill Ford.

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The Chinese company is looking at options for the social media app that could involve a change of control locally to ensure it complies with U.S. legislation, General Atlantic chief executive Ford said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The private equity firm holds a stake in ByteDance, TikTok’s parent firm.

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“We are optimistic we will find a solution,” Ford said, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “There are a number of alternatives we can talk to President Trump and his team about that are short of selling the company that allow the company to continue to operate, maybe with a change of control of some kind, but short of having to sell.”

TikTok temporarily went offline in the U.S. last weekend after the Supreme Court backed a national security law forcing the company to either sell or shutter the service in the country. Donald Trump then signed an executive order on his first day in office to extend the deadline for a sale. That provides 75 days for ByteDance, which has publicly refused to sell TikTok, to come up with a solution.

“I’m optimistic about the dialog that is emerging between President Trump and President Xi,” Ford said. “That might help create a much more constructive environment, a much higher level of engagement that could lead to a positive solution.”

Bidders have already begun circling the social media platform and Trump has endorsed the idea of a deal involving billionaire technology moguls and the U.S.

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More broadly, the technology sector is a major part of rampant optimism about the prospects for US economic growth. Market valuations in the U.S., which are at historically high multiples to earnings, are already pricing in a lot of that optimism, Ford said.

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Still, General Atlantic sees a lot of opportunity and has a rich pipeline of deals, he added.

“We are at an incredible moment of inflection in the technology space and it turns out that this is the fifth major tech cycle of my career,” Ford said. “I think back to the PC cycle of the 1980s, the internet cycle of the 90s, mobile in the 2000s and cloud in 2010s and now we have AI, and this one is probably the biggest in many ways and will have the most profound impact.”

He expects to see a “renaissance” for initial public offerings, with a long backlog of companies that could come to market. “We’ve had three of the toughest years on record for IPO activity,” he said.

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