Chinese company ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok, is reportedly planning a merger with American search engine Perplexity AI. What kind of involvement could the US government take in this process?
Chinese company ByteDance, which is the parent company of TikTok, is reportedly planning a merger with American search engine Perplexity AI. What kind of involvement could the US government take in this process?
The US government is to own up to 50% of the new company after the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of the company, which will be created after the merger of Perplexity and TikTok US, Reuters writes, citing a message from a person familiar with the proposal, received on Sunday.
According to a Perplexity document from ByteDance and a new investor cited by the publication, the new American holding company will be called NewCo.
The US government will own up to half of the new entity after it goes through an IPO, which will value it at at least $300 billion. ByteDance will sell TikTok US to investors and the offer will also exclude TikTok’s core recommendation algorithm, which ByteDance will retain, the source said.
As a reminder, TikTok went down in the US on Saturday evening, January 18, less than two hours before the planned ban, in accordance with the law banning the social network. Access to TikTok in the US was restored the next day.
A week ago, US President-elect Donald Trump said he was in talks with several interested parties about a possible acquisition of TikTok and would make a decision on TikTok within the next 30 days.
