The winning bidder for TikTok’s U.S., New Zealand and Australian operations could be announced as soon as Tuesday (Sept. 1), sources told CNBC.
But the source did not reveal or perhaps did not know whether the winning bidder is the team of Microsoft Corp. and Walmart Inc., Oracle, Twitter or an unnamed company that has negotiated under the radar.
The saga began on Aug. 6 when President Donald Trump issued an executive decision to ban transactions with TikTok or its parent company, China-based ByteDance Ltd., within 45 days. Later, Trump issued an order that gave the China-based company 90 days, until Sept. 20, to divest its U.S. TikTok operations.
Trump raised security issues alleging the app could be taking personal information from TikTok users and passing it on to the Chinese government. ByteDance has denied the allegations and filed suitin U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, where TikTok’s American operations are based. ByteDance argues Trump’s far-reaching action is unconstitutional because it failed to give the company a chance to respond. It also alleges that the administration’s national security justification for the order is false.
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