Trump is looking for potential buyers of TikTok – who are the likely contenders?

President Donald Trump wants a US investor to take a major stake in ByteDance’s TikTok. Several parties are in contention even as potential buyers face a litany of legal hurdles and barriers.

After passing in restore TikTok in the United States and delaying a law that would effectively ban the app, Trump is looking for long-term ways to keep the platform popular.

He presented a proposal for an American stakeholder to buy the company and then sell a 50% stake to the US government, which manages the app together with the private party.

So, who are the likely contenders for one of the most popular apps in the United States?

The world’s richest person heads Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, has close business ties with China and has the expressed opposition to the ban on TikTok.

Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the Chinese government was considering a plan to have Musk acquire TikTok’s US operations, citing anonymous sources. This followed a report from the Wall Street Journal, which stated that the CEO of TikTok had been asking for advice from Musk before Trump’s inauguration.

CNBC was unable to reach Musk for comment.

“Elon Musk continues to be front and center as a potential bidder for TikTok, which will likely include some technology partners/outside investors to make a deal,” Wedbush said in a research note on Wednesday.

“Musk would be hand-picked by Beijing and his close relationship with Trump would make this a very logical choice in our view,” the note added.

Nat Schindler, an analyst at Scotiabank, also noted that Musk’s purchase of Twitter showed his interest in global social networking platforms. However, he also sees some potential obstacles for the tech mogul.

“Musk is already subject to owning X and the perception that they are using it to promote certain political ideas, and any involvement in TikTok could attract additional fire and potentially antitrust scrutiny,” Schindler said.

Trump also said he would “love” to see it Oracle The president Larry Ellison buys the platform.

Ellison, a longtime Trump supporter, stood next to the president at a press conference on his Investment in AI infrastructure plans on Tuesday, where Trump was asked questions about a potential TikTok deal.

“What I’m thinking of telling anybody is, buy it, and give half to the United States of America. Half and we’ll give you the permit,” Trump said before turning to Ellison to ask if the deal sounded reasonable.

“That sounds like a good deal to me, Mr. President,” Ellison replied.

Ellison and his company are currently at the center of the TikTok dilemma, operating as a cloud infrastructure provider for ByteDance in the United States.

Given its existing relationship with Tiktok, Oracle and is “directly invested in Tiktok’s success in the region,” said Scotiabank’s Schindler.

Ellison had bid for Tiktok, together Walmartback in 2020 when Trump first pushed for a ban on the platform. Neither company responded to CNBC’s request for comment.

Trump had approved of the Walmart-Oracle deal in principle, which would have seen the tech and retail giants partner to take over the video-sharing app in the US, avoiding a shutdown. However, the Trump administration’s attempt to ban TikTok in the United States has fallen short in the face of legal challenges.

Ellison later joined a group of investors that helped Elon Musk buy the social networking platform Twitter, now known as X, in 2022.

“(We believe) Oracle/Ellison could play a crucial role in any deal given its key technology partnership with TikTok and its appearance at the White House with Project Stargate,” Wedbush said.

Wedbush added that it expects a slew of TikTok deals to come in the coming weeks from a host of players with Musk and Ellison leading the pack.

He added that potential suitors are likely to include some of America’s biggest social media and technology players, such as Meta and Googlein addition to Musk’s X.

Meta and Google did not immediately respond to a CNBC inquiry.

Sarah Kreps, the director of the Technology Policy Institute at Cornell University, however, warned that players like Meta, Google and Musk who get a substantial stake in TikTok could raise antitrust questions.

Scotiabank analyst Nat Schindler noted that there were also a number of other players, including existing investors. BlackRockCoatue, and General Atlantic, who owns a big piece of TikTok’s parent company. According to him, some of these investors are likely to participate in any sale of the US platform by investing in the new entity.

“Other big VCs, hedge funds and asset managers from Tiger to Fidelity are also likely to show interest in a fast-growing global platform with such a large viewer base,” Schindler said, adding that they would find investors to own a share of Tiktok it won’t be. be a problem.

In a video, the Internet personality claimed that he had an official offer readyjoking that he could be the new CEO of TikTok.

Media reports they also mentioned Donaldson and a group of investors who are preparing to make an offer for TikTok.

On Thursday, Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Donaldson, told CNBC that “Several potential buyers are in ongoing discussions with Jimmy, but he does not have an exclusive agreement with any of them.”

O’Leary told CNBC last year that he wanted to buy the platform with a discount as any possible deal will not include the original algorithm of TikTok. The organization said that it already has a replacement for the algorithm to be used for TikTok US

After Trump’s comments about a 50% stake in the platform, the two McCourt and O’Leary told CNBC this week that they were interested in a TikTok deal and hoped to work with Trump to make it happen.

McCourt also told CNBC that he wants TikTok to run a decentralized social network protocol, or DSNP, overseen by the Project Liberty Institute, a nonprofit founded by the billionaire.

Aside from the interest in the offer, a number of legal and technology experts told CNBC that Trump’s executive order to delay the ban on TikTok contradicts the Supreme Court’s precedent. sentence to support the PAFACA and could face legal opposition.

O’Leary also told CNBC on Monday that a TikTok deal might not happen under current lawafter the Supreme Court upheld an impending ban on TikTok under the Protecting Americans from the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Actor PAFACA, Sunday.

Beijing and its pending negotiations with Trump regarding trade with the United States is also expected to play a determining factor in whether the Chinese government will allow ByteDance to make a divestment.

“In this high-stakes poker game between the Trump Administration and Beijing, it’s clear that TikTok is a big chip on the table,” Wedush said.