On Thursday, digital advertising firm AppLovin became the most recent company to signal its intent to acquire TikTok, with a looming April 5 deadline to prevent a ban in the United States.
The company, in a filing , indicated to President Donald Trump their "interest in exploring" the acquisition of the widely-used social media platform “excluding China." AppLovin mentioned that this interest remains at a preliminary stage, with no assurance that a deal will be finalized.
This revelation comes after AppLovin’s stock price surged by 260% over the last year. However, the firm has faced criticism from short sellers who have criticized it. raised concerns regarding operations within its online shopping platform .
The firm stated that the allegations made by the short sellers were "filled with inaccuracies and false claims." This year, shares of AppLovin have decreased by 19.1%.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported The prominent online retail corporation Amazon.com Inc. reportedly submitted an offer for TikTok. Additionally, a group headed by the creator of the adult-oriented platform OnlyFans has expressed interest in acquiring the site. Furthermore, Oracle Corp., which currently supplies cloud services to TikTok, is considered another potential suitor, as various sources suggest.
TikTok is under the ownership of ByteDance, a Chinese corporation. Due to safety worries, American legislators approved a provision earlier this year aimed at banning or compelling the sale of TikTok’s operations within the U.S. by January. However, President Trump pushed back the date for finding an American purchaser until April 5th.
"We see TikTok as one of the largest initial moves in the game regarding U.S.-China relations, which will present numerous intricate challenges for the Trump administration to address in the upcoming years," wrote Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a research note on Tuesday.