Amazon has reportedly made a last-minute bid to purchase TikTok. The news, first reported by the New York Times, comes just days before the current deadline for the social media platform to leave its China-based parent company ByteDance.
Per the Trump administration, TikTok currently has until April 5 to find a buyer or face a ban in the U.S., though the president has signaled that he would likely extend that deadline if necessary. Amazon’s bid this week is certainly coming in under the wire. The New York Times reports that “the bid came via an offer letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, according to a person briefed on the matter.”
The Times’ report stated that Amazon’s offer doesn’t currently appear likely to go through, as various parties involved in the discussion “do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously.” The e-commerce giant joins other interested parties such as Oracle, Microsoft, Perplexity AI, Project Liberty and YouTuber MrBeast.
