Trump says he has group of ‘very wealthy people' lined up to buy TikTok after pushing back ban of social media app
DONALD Trump said he has a group of "very wealthy people" lined up to buy TikTok.
The President has repeatedly delayed a ban blocking the app to allow more time for negotiations with the Chinese owners - who have consistently refused to sell.
4
4
4
Trump has fought to force TikTok's owners to sell to an American party since his first term.
A bill signed last year makes it illegal to operate under the current Chinese owners, but the ban has been delayed three times and the company has always refused to sell.
However, on Sunday, Trump told Fox News a "group of very wealthy people" wanted to purchase the app from ByteDance.
He said: 'I think I will need China['s] approval, and I think President Xi will probably do it."
Without revealing any details, he added: 'I'll tell you in about two weeks.'
The closest to Trump has come to barring American users from TikTok was at the time of his inauguration in January this year.
A ban took effect on January 19, and TikTok shut itself down an hour before that, telling users "you can't use TikTok for now" due to a "law banning TikTok".
But around 12 hours later it came back online after conversations between the US and China behind the scenes - and was available for download again three weeks later.
Since then, Trump has delayed the ban three times - twice for 75 days and most recently by 90 days on June 17.
The eventual ban or sale is required by a "foreign adversary" bill signed in March 2024.
ByteDance challenged the Act, but it was upheld by the Supreme Court in January.
It's not clear how much TikTok would sell for, with valuations ranging from $30billion to $300billion.
Rumoured new American owners have included major tech companies like Microsoft and Oracle.
The wildly popular YouTuber Mr Beast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, said in January he would submit an official offer for TikTok through and investment group led by Jesse Tinsley.
Steve Mnuchin, Trump's treasury secretary during his first term in office, also floated the idea of purchasing the app with a group of billionaire investors when the ban was first passed.
Amazon reportedly made a last-minute bid to purchase TikTok three days before the second recent extension in April.
The bill banning continued Chinese ownership of TikTok cites concerns about national security risks.
ByteDance was initially given nine months to sell-up - and that expired in January.
However, the company has repeatedly insisted it will not give-up the app.
It said in April: "ByteDance doesn't have any plans to sell TikTok."
Reports circulated that it was considering a sale of the app without the key algorithm, but these were denied.
The owners insisted: "Foreign media reports of ByteDance selling TikTok are not true."
4
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
American politician issues a wake-up call for Anthony Albanese - and what he needs to do for Trump
Two US congressmen have urged Anthony Albanese to visit the White House in order to meet Donald Trump and save the wavering AUKUS pact. Republican Michael McCaul and Democrat Joe Courtney are the co-chairs of the Friends of Australia Caucus, which is pushing for AUKUS to go ahead after Elbridge Colby, the US defence under-secretary for policy, announced a review of the nuclear submarine deal. McCaul said on Monday it was crucial for Albanese to develop a personal rapport with Trump. 'For (Albanese) to come to the White House would be a great gesture on the prime minister's part, that I think would go over very well,' he told the Australian Financial Review. 'That would be very sound advice for him to do that.' Meanwhile, Courtney said Albanese should highlight the significant investment Aussie companies were making in US shipyards, set to hit $4.6billion AUD. He also emphasised that Australia would pay a fair price for the several nuclear submarines set to be acquired from 2032. 'This really takes it out of the sort of America First criticism of security agreements... where President Trump felt that other countries weren't pulling their own weight,' Courtney said. 'It's a case that is very unique that the prime minister can articulate. '(Albanese) is a very personable and socially savvy person, kind of like (UK Prime Minister) Keir Starmer, who does seem to have succeeded with the personal interaction.' Albanese was stood up by the US President at the G7 Summit in Canada earlier this month, and instead met with members of Trump's senior economic team. Trump left the summit early due to the Israel-Iran conflict, scotching planned meeting with several world leaders including Albanese, who has only ever spoken to the US President on the phone. The prime minister also did not attend last week's NATO Summit, where political observers had hoped he would have a second chance to meet with Trump. In a win for the US President, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation - which Australia is not a part of - agreed at the summit to lift their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP over 10 years. The White House later indicated it expects its allies in the Asia-Pacific - including Australia - to also increase their defence funding. This means that Albanese may be pressured to increase defence spending if he wants to shore up the AUKUS deal, and to secure a reprieve from punishing tariffs imposed by the US on imports, including a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminium. In this year's Budget, the Albanese government raised defence spending to 2.2 per cent of GDP, aiming for 2.3 per cent by 2034 - well short of the 3 per cent of GDP that the Trump administration has previously demanded of Australia.
Reuters
35 minutes ago
- Reuters
Global M&A powered by larger deals in first half; bankers show appetite for megadeals
NEW YORK, June 29 (Reuters) - Mergers and acquisitions during the first half of this year were not what investment bankers had hoped for, but a burst of big deals in Asia and renewed optimism in U.S. markets could be paving the way for megadeals. Market uncertainties stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war, high interest rates and broader geopolitical tensions hampered — but did not completely derail — what bankers expected to be a blockbuster year for global M&A, dealmakers say. Trump's tariff policies, kicked off by his self-styled "Liberation Day" on April 2, cast a chill over the markets and pushed several deals and initial public offerings into subsequent quarters. "The expectation was we would see a lot of deal activity in the first half of 2025, and the reality is we didn't see it," said Tommy Rueger, global co-head of equity capital markets at UBS, which Dealogic ranked No. 9 in equity capital markets revenue, according to preliminary data from January 1 through June 27. Interviews with more than a dozen top bankers signal growing confidence that the worst of the market turbulence is over. Fresh record closing highs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes have helped renew optimism that M&A in the second half of the year will be even stronger, dealmakers say. "There were a lot of deals that were put on hold that will come back," said Ivan Farman, co-head of global M&A at Bank of America, which was ranked No. 3 in overall investment banking revenue and No. 5 for M&A in Dealogic's year-to-date rankings. "I'm optimistic about the second half." There is reason for optimism, dealmakers say, with the recovery in the markets and Trump's easier antitrust policies paving the way for bigger deals. "The probability of very large transactions, perhaps $50 billion-plus, has increased versus a year ago," said John Collins, global co-head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Morgan Stanley, which was ranked No. 4 in overall fee revenue among investment banks and No. 3 for M&A deals. Some $2.14 trillion in deals were signed from January 1 through June 27, up 26% from the same period last year. Part of that increase, however, came from Asia, where activity more than doubled to $583.9 billion. Deal activity in North America rose to $1.04 trillion from January 1 through June 27, up 17% from the first half last year, according to preliminary data from Dealogic. Market volatility, as measured by the VIX index (.VIX), opens new tab, has dropped to levels that indicate investors feel safer to invest today. "It's been clear that momentum continues to build, paving the way for larger transactions. People are feeling more positive than they were a month ago and starting to implement their decisions," said Philip Ross, vice chairman of Jefferies bank. As the markets calm down, institutional investors are starting to jump back in to equities and more companies are moving forward with IPO plans that had been postponed earlier this quarter. 'The combination of all of those together has created, over the last three to four weeks, an incredibly strong new issue backdrop and we've seen a significant uptick in activity," Rueger said. Saadi Soudavar, head of equity capital markets for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Deutsche Bank, added: "Equity markets have shown a remarkable ability to shrug off a lot of the tariff and geopolitical related volatility." A few big deals helped boost market morale at the height of tariff turmoil, including Global Payments' $24.25 billion acquisition of a card processing and account services firm in April. Charter Communications (CHTR.O), opens new tabin May agreed to buy privately held rival Cox Communications for $21.9 billion. And U.S.-based equipment manufacturer Chart Industries GTLS.N and Flowserve Corp (FLS.N), opens new tab agreed to merge, valuing the combined company at about $19 billion. There were 17,528 deals signed during the first half of this year, compared with 20,583 deals in the same period last year, according to Dealogic. But this year's deals were bigger in size, pushing the total value of deals higher. There was a 62% increase in the number of $10 billion-plus deals versus the same period last year, the data shows. Dealmaking in Asia was a bright spot. Overall M&A activity rose to $583.9 billion in the first six months, up from $269.9 billion a year ago. Led by Japan and China, the region accounted for 27.3% of the global M&A activity, gaining more than 11 percentage points from the same period last year. Some of the region's biggest deals were kept within the Asia-Pacific region. Toyota Motor (7203.T), opens new tab announced plans on June 3 to take one of its suppliers private for $33 billion. On June 16, a consortium led by Abu Dhabi's National Oil Company (ADNOC) launched an $18.7 billion all-cash takeover of Australia's second-largest oil producer Santos ( opens new tab. Asia also helped drive global equity issuance higher despite the market volatility, with overall volume rising nearly 8% to $350 billion from the same period last year. "You will see more Asia-to-Asia activity," said Raghav Maliah, global vice chairman of investment banking at Goldman Sachs, which was ranked No. 2 in overall investment banking fees and No. 1 in M&A revenue. "Japan has been a big driver in all the deal volumes (in Asia) and we do believe that trend will continue."
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Asia shares track Wall St gains before payrolls test
SYDNEY, June 30 (Reuters) - Asia shares firmed on Monday as seemingly unquenchable demand for technology companies lifted S&P 500 futures to another all-time peak, while the dollar dipped on concerns U.S. jobs data will show enough weakness to justify larger rate cuts. Investors were also keeping a wary eye on the progress of a huge U.S. tax-cutting and spending bill slowly making its way through the Senate, with signs it may not make it by President Donald Trump's preferred July 4 deadline. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would add $3.3 trillion to the nation's debt, testing foreign appetite for U.S. Treasuries. There was no doubting the demand for the U.S. tech sector and megacap growth stocks including Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab. Nasdaq futures rose another 0.3%, while S&P 500 e-minis added 0.2%. The bullish sentiment spilled over into Japan's Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab which rose 1.0%, while South Korean stocks (.KS11), opens new tab gained 0.5%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab firmed 0.1%. A holiday on Friday means U.S. payrolls are a day early, with analysts forecasting a rise of 110,000 in June with the jobless rate ticking up to 4.3%. The resilience of the labour market is a major reason the majority of Federal Reserve members say they can afford to wait on cutting rates until they can gauge the true impact of tariffs on inflation, so a weak report would stoke speculation of a rate cut in July rather than September. "While initial jobless claims retreated somewhat from their recent high, continuing claims jumped higher yet again," noted Michael Feroli, head of U.S. economics at JPMorgan. "Consumers' assessment of labor market conditions also deteriorated in the latest confidence report." "Both of these developments suggest that the unemployment rate in June should tick up to 4.3%, with a significant risk of reaching 4.4%." The latter outcome would likely see futures push up the chance of a July easing from the current 18% and price in more than the present 63 basis points of cuts for this year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell will have an opportunity to repeat his cautious outlook when he joins several other central bank chiefs at the European Central Bank forum in Sintra on Tuesday. The prospect of an eventual policy easing has helped Treasuries weather worries about the U.S. budget deficit and the huge amount of borrowing it entails. Yields on 10-year Treasuries were steady at 3.27%, having fallen 9 basis points last week. The dollar has not fared so well, in part due to concerns tariffs and chaotic policies from the White House will drag on economic growth and erode the country's claim to exceptionalism. The euro was near its highest since September 2021 at $1.1731 , having climbed 1.7% last week, while sterling stood near a similar peak at $1.3719 . The dollar was down a fraction at 144.48 yen , after losing 1% last week, while the dollar index dipped to 97.163 . James Reilly, a senior markets economist at Capital Economics, noted the dollar had fallen by more at this stage in the year than in any previous year since the U.S. moved to a free-floating exchange rate in 1973. "At this point, further weakness could become self-reinforcing as underhedged European/Asian portfolios chase the move," he added. "So, we suspect that this could be a pivotal period for the greenback – either it turns around here or there is another 5% or so fall around the corner." In commodity markets, the general revival in risk sentiment has undermined gold, which slipped to $3,266 an ounce and further away from April's record top of $3,500. Oil prices continued to struggle on concerns about plans for increased output from OPEC+, which contributed to a 12% slide last week. Brent dropped a further 55 cents to $67.22 a barrel, while U.S. crude eased 68 cents to $64.84 per barrel.
