Trump is looking for potential Tiktok buyers, who are the possible contenders?

President Donald Trump wants an American investor to take a major stake in Bytedance’s Tiktok. Several parties are in dispute even as potential buyers face a litany of legal hurdles and barriers.

After intervening Restore to Tiktok in the United States And by delaying a law that would effectively ban the app, Trump is looking for long-term ways to keep the popular platform afloat.

It has submitted a proposal for an American stakeholder group to buy the company and then sell a 50% stake to the US government, which will jointly manage the app along with the private party.

So who are the likely contenders for one of America’s most popular apps?

The world’s richest person leads Trump’s new government efficiency department, has close business ties to China and has expressed opposition To the tiktok ban.

Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the Chinese government was considering a plan for Musk to acquire Tiktok’s U.S. operations, citing unnamed sources. Which followed a report from the Wall Street Journal, which claimed that the CEO of Tiktok had been request musk tips before Trump’s inauguration.

CNBC was unable to reach Musk for comment.

“Elon Musk remains front and center as a positive positive for Tiktok, which likely includes some outside technology partners/investors to make a deal,” Wedbush said in a research note on Wednesday.

“Musk would be hand-picked by Beijing and his Ironclad relationship with Trump would make this a very logical choice in our view,” the note added.

Scotiabank analyst Nat Schindler also noted that Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has demonstrated his interest in global social media platforms. However, he also sees some potential obstacles for the tech mogul.

“Musk is already under fire for owning X and the perception that he is using it to promote certain political ideas, and any involvement in Tiktok could draw additional fire and potentially antitrust scrutiny,” Schindler said.

Trump has also said he would “like” to see Oracle President Larry Ellison buys the platform.

Ellison, a long time Trump fan, stood next to the president in a press conference in your AI infrastructure investment plans on Tuesday, where Trump was asked questions about a possible Tiktok deal.

“What I’m thinking about telling someone is, buy it and give half to the United States of America. Half and we’ll give you permission,” Trump said before turning to Ellison to ask if the deal sounded reasonable.

“Sounds like a good deal to me, Mr. President,” Ellison responded.

Ellison and his company are currently at the center of the Tiktok dilemma, operating as a cloud infrastructure provider for the Byte in the United States.

Given its existing relationship with Tiktok, Oracle is “directly invested in Tiktok’s success in the region,” Scotiabank’s Schindler said.

Ellison had bid for Tiktok, along with Walmartin 2020, when Trump first pushed to ban the platform. Neither company responded to CNBC’s request for comment.

Trump had approved In principle, from the Walmart-Oracle deal, which would have seen the technology and retail giants partner to take over the video-sharing app in the United States, avoiding a shutdown. However, the Trump administration’s attempt to ban Tiktok in the US fell in the face of legal challenges.

Ellison later joined a group of investors That helped Elon Musk buy social media platform Twitter, now known as X, in 2022.

“(We believe) Oracle/Ellison could play a critical role in any deal given their key technology partnership with Tiktok and their appearance at the White House with Project Stargate,” Wedbush said.

Wedbush added that he expects a slew of Tiktok deals to come in the coming weeks from a host of players with Musk and Ellison leading the pack.

He added that potential suitors are likely to include some of the largest US technology and social media players, such as Goal and Googlein addition to Musk’s X.

Meta and Google did not immediately respond to a query from CNBC.

However, Sarah Kreps, the director of the Technology Policy Institute at Cornell University, warned that players like Meta, Google and Musk gaining a substantial stake in Tiktok could raise antitrust questions.

Scotiabank analyst Nat Schindler noted there were several other players as well, including existing investors. black rockCoatue and General Atlantic, which own a big chunk from Tiktok’s parent company. According to him, some of these investors are likely to participate in any sale of the US platform by investing in the new entity.

“Other large VCs, hedge funds and asset managers from Tiger to Fidelity would also show interest in a fast-growing global platform with such a large viewer base,” Schindler said, adding that finding investors to own a piece of Tiktok would not will do it. be a problem.

In a video, the internet personality claimed that there was an official offer readyproviding that he could be the new CEO of Tiktok.

Media reports They have also mentioned Donaldson and a group of investors preparing to make a bid for Tiktok.

On Thursday, Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesperson for Donaldson, told CNBC that “several potential buyers are in ongoing discussions with Jimmy, but he does not have exclusive agreements with any of them.”

O’Leary told CNBC last year that he wanted Buy the platform at a discount As any possible agreement will not include Tiktok’s original algorithm. The organization said it already has a replacement for the algorithm to use for Tiktok US

After Trump’s comments about a 50% share of the platform, both McCourt and O’Leary They told CNBC this week that they were interested in a Tiktok deal and hoped to work with Trump to make it happen.

McCourt also told CNBC that he wants Tiktok to run a decentralized social media protocol, or DSNP, overseen by the Liberty Institute Project, a nonprofit founded by the billionaire.

Bidding interest aside, a number of legal and technology experts have told CNBC that Trump’s executive order to delay the Tiktok ban contradicts the Supreme Court’s previous one. decision to defend the pafaca and could face legal opposition.

O’Leary also told CNBC on Monday that a Tiktok deal couldn’t happen. According to current lawafter the Supreme Court upheld an imminent ban on Tiktok under the Protecting Americans from the Controlled Alien Adversarial Applications Actor Pafaca, on Sunday.

Beijing and its pending negotiations with Trump regarding trade with the United States are also expected to play a determining factor in whether the Chinese government would allow the byte to deflate.

“In this high-stakes game of poker between the Trump administration and Beijing, it’s clear that Tiktok is a big chip on the table,” Wedush said