Blackstone Reportedly Weighs Investment in TikTok US
The private equity outfit Blackstone reportedly could soon be an investor in TikTok’s American operations.
The company is considering a small minority investment in the social media platform, Reuters reported Friday (March 28), citing two sources familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Blackstone is weighing whether to join Chinese parent company ByteDance’s existing non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing fresh funding to bid for TikTok’s American unit. The group, the report added, has emerged as front-runners to take over TikTok.
Their plan would spin off TikTok U.S. into a separate entity, winnowing down Chinese ownership in this new business to under 20%, the threshold mandated by U.S. law.
The future of TikTok has been in limbo since last year, when Congress — driven by national security fears — passed a law requiring its Chinese parent company to divest or face a ban.
The law gave ByteDance until January 19 of this year to divest. That deadline came and went with no decision, and TikTok briefly shut down in the U.S. However, the site quickly returned to life when President Donald Trump said he would give ByteDance more time.
The new deadline is just days away — April 5 — though Trump has said he could extend it even further. The Reuters report noted that Vice President JD Vance has said he expects a deal to be reached in time for the deadline.
Among the other potential bidders for TikTok is the artificial intelligence (AI) search engine firm Perplexity. This month, the company made its case for why it should become the site’s new owner, following weeks of reports that the company was interested in merging with TikTok.
“Perplexity is singularly positioned to rebuild the TikTok algorithm without creating a monopoly, combining world-class technical capabilities with Little Tech independence,” the company wrote on its blog.
“Any acquisition by a consortium of investors could in effect keep ByteDance in control of the algorithm, while any acquisition by a competitor would likely create a monopoly in the short form video and information space. All of society benefits when content feeds are liberated from the manipulations of foreign governments and globalist monopolists.”
Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has shown TikTok’s role as a driver of social commerce, with 20% of retail shoppers saying they are influenced by written content they encounter on it and other platforms.
“When you rarely leave the house, whoever’s showing up on your phone will have a lot of sway,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this year. “TikTok isn’t just a platform for showcasing boxed-in dance moves — it’s an economic force within the hermitage.”
The post Blackstone Reportedly Weighs Investment in TikTok US appeared first on PYMNTS.com.