The TikTok saga continues to rebound. Donald Trump announced this Friday that he was granting a new deadline to ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to sell its American operations. It was one minute later, the reprieve runs until tomorrow, Saturday, April 5. The American president specified that the deadline has been extended by 75 days, until mid-June.
Trump grants TikTok another reprieve
"The agreement still requires work to obtain all the necessary authorizations," justified Trump in his message. He also assures that he wants to continue exchanges "in good faith with China," even if he emphasizes that Beijing is "not very happy" with the new customs tariffs imposed by his administration. As a reminder, Washington recently raised its taxes on Chinese products to a total of 54%, which doesn't really help to ease the tension.
TikTok had already narrowly escaped a complete blockade in January. The day before a national security law signed by Joe Biden came into effect in 2024, Apple and Google briefly removed the app from their stores. Just after his inauguration on January 20, Donald Trump announced a first extension. To avoid a crushing blow, the new president even asked... his attorney general not to enforce the law for now, which seems a little crazy.
Behind this political saga lies a discreet but fierce race to take over TikTok's American operations. Several groups are in the running. Oracle and AppLovin have been interested for several months. But more recently, Amazon attempted a last-minute entry with a surprise offer.
Other options are being considered, such as a consortium led by financiers who could take over about half of the business TikTok's American subsidiary. Investors already present in the company would also retain a stake. Even the startup Perplexity has proposed a merger with TikTok, just to carve out a place for itself in the dance scene.
ByteDance, for its part, remains silent on its preferences. The company only confirms that no agreement has yet been signed, and that any project would have to go through with the green light from the Chinese authorities. In other words: it's far too early to declare victory.
Time is running out, but Donald Trump is showing flexibility. He even hints that a further postponement is possible if no concrete deal is reached by mid-June. In the meantime, TikTok remains available in the United States — and negotiations continue, away from the cameras.
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