Trump says no extension of TikTok deadline for China’s ByteDance
- Owner likely to miss US president’s September 15 deadline to divest American operations of popular video-sharing app
- Negotiations with bidders Microsoft and Oracle hit snag over new Chinese regulations
US President Donald Trump said he would not extend his September 15 deadline for ByteDance to sell the US operations of its popular TikTok video-sharing app.
“We’ll either close up TikTok in this country for security reasons, or it will be sold,” Trump told reporters Thursday before boarding the presidential aircraft for a campaign trip to Michigan. “There will be no extension of the TikTok deadline.”
Administration officials had been considering whether to give more time to TikTok’s Chinese owner to arrange a sale of the app’s US operations to an American buyer, though a decision had not yet been presented to Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.
ByteDance is likely to miss the president’s publicly stated deadline for the company to strike a deal to divest its US operations after new Chinese regulations complicated negotiations with bidders Microsoft and Oracle.
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US demands for TikTok may escalate decoupling and hurt businesses, says China expert
In preliminary talks with Chinese officials, ByteDance has been told that any proposal must be submitted for approval with detailed information about technical and financial issues, and the review will be substantial and take time.