China exploring possible sale of US TikTok to Musk: report

China exploring possible sale of US TikTok to Musk: report

NEW YORK
China exploring possible sale of US TikTok to Musk: reportChina exploring possible sale of US TikTok to Musk: report

Chinese officials are exploring a potential sale of U.S. TikTok operations to billionaire Elon Musk as the video-sharing platform faces an American law requiring imminent Chinese divestment, Bloomberg News reported.

The report, citing anonymous people familiar with the matter, outlined one scenario being discussed in Beijing where Musk's social media company X would purchase TikTok from Chinese owner ByteDance and combine it into the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The report estimated the value of TikTok's U.S. operations at between $40 and $50 billion.

Bloomberg said it was not clear how Musk could execute the transaction, or if he would need to sell other assets.

The U.S. government passed a law last year that requires TikTok's ByteDance to either sell the wildly popular platform or shut it down. It goes into effect Sunday - a day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The U.S. government alleges TikTok allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users and is a conduit to spread propaganda. China and ByteDance strongly deny the claims.

TikTok has challenged the law, taking an appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday.

Bloomberg characterized Beijing's consideration of a possible Musk transaction as "still preliminary," noting that Chinese officials have yet to reach a consensus on how to proceed.

It said it was not clear how much ByteDance knew of the Chinese government planning.