'Investors in Limbo'. Will the TikTok Deal's Deadline Be Extended Again? (bbc.com) 21
An anonymous reader shared this report from the BBC:
A billionaire investor keen on buying TikTok's US operations has told the BBC he has been left in limbo as the latest deadline for the app's sale looms.
The US has repeatedly delayed the date by which the platform's Chinese owner, Bytedance, must sell or be blocked for American users. US President Donald Trump appears poised to extend the deadline for a fifth time on Tuesday. "We're just standing by and waiting to see what happens," investor Frank McCourt told BBC News...
The president...said "sophisticated" US investors would acquire the app, including two of his allies: Oracle chairman Larry Ellison and Dell Technologies' Michael Dell. Members of the Trump administration had indicated the deal would be formalised in a meeting between Trump and Xi in October — however it concluded without an agreement being reached. Neither TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance nor Beijing have since announced approval of a sale, despite Trump's claims. This time there are no such claims a deal is imminent, leading most analysts to conclude another extension is inevitable.
Other investors besides McCourt include Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Shark Tank entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary.
The US has repeatedly delayed the date by which the platform's Chinese owner, Bytedance, must sell or be blocked for American users. US President Donald Trump appears poised to extend the deadline for a fifth time on Tuesday. "We're just standing by and waiting to see what happens," investor Frank McCourt told BBC News...
The president...said "sophisticated" US investors would acquire the app, including two of his allies: Oracle chairman Larry Ellison and Dell Technologies' Michael Dell. Members of the Trump administration had indicated the deal would be formalised in a meeting between Trump and Xi in October — however it concluded without an agreement being reached. Neither TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance nor Beijing have since announced approval of a sale, despite Trump's claims. This time there are no such claims a deal is imminent, leading most analysts to conclude another extension is inevitable.
Other investors besides McCourt include Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Shark Tank entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary.
Of Course It Will (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Of Course It Will (Score:1)
I feel a trump/oracle electric car/space company in the future xx
Funny that ... (Score:4, Funny)
I was thinking about Tacos for dinner.
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Chicken tacos?
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Chori pollo. This local place puts some slow cooked onions down before the meat and it's amazing.
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I expect the announcement of the extension will happen on Tuesday.
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TACCCCO
Why would they sell? (Score:3)
Trump has zero leverage. The Chinese already know Trump is bluffing and will never ban TikTok.
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Yes, a platform that allows (relatively) free speech is anti-American these days. Can't have people learning about the rest of the world without the blinders installed by the PTB first.
Who knew the US is not the only market in the worl (Score:3)
TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance nor Beijing have since announced approval of a sale, despite Trump's claims. This time there are no such claims a deal is imminent...
And there never was any such evidence. This entire charade can be explained as "Trump makes bombastic claims he can force a foreign business to sell, gets lesson in reality, shows he's too chicken to follow through on his threats." He can't lose a major tent pole of his circus.
TikTok divestiture law doesn't allow extensions (Score:3, Interesting)
The TikTok divestiture law, officially known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, mandates that ByteDance must divest its ownership of TikTok by January 19, 2025, or face a nationwide ban.
The law contains no provision for extending or changing that deadline.
Trump has no authority to extend or change the deadline since that date was written directly into the law.
Note that the date is almost a year ago now....
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When does not having legal authority ever stopped Orange Man from doing something stupid?
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Yes, because this administration would never blatantly violate the law.
No wait, they do it every single day when they deny people due process as they get swept up by the ICE gestapo and held without charges, without bail, without hearing, and without legality.
Wake me up when someone is interested in enforcing these laws. Otherwise "has no authority to" is meaningless if nobody is enforcing such restrictions.
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Wrong. Or at least incomplete and misleading.
It is true that the text of the original standalone bill doesn't have any provisions about extensions - see https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7521 [congress.gov]. But that version was never passed into law in the first place.
The law that was actually passed was incorporated into "H.R.815 - Making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, a