LAS VEGAS – Back in March 2025 at Prosper in Las Vegas, Michelle Barnum Smith of Prosper exhibitor TikTok Shop Sellers confidently declared: “TikTok is not going away. People need to lean in and get their money.” At the time it seemed unlikely, considering that a bipartisan bill mandated that TikTok be sold to an American company or banned altogether.
Fast forward six months and the Trump administration has extended the deadline a fourth time, with the New York Times reporting that an agreement may be imminent. Details of the framework have begun to emerge.
“ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, would spin out the app’s American operations into a new company, according to two people familiar with the discussions,” wrote NY Times reporters in a Sept. 16 article. “Some of TikTok’s largest investors would maintain their stake in the American app, while ByteDance would also bring in new U.S. investors to reduce Chinese ownership to less than 20 percent, the people said.”
The deal reportedly could involve software giant Oracle, with the Times concluding: “The deal would mark an end to a yearslong debate over TikTok’s future in the United States, where its feed of short swipeable videos has captured the attention of more than 170 million users. Who buys and controls the app and its powerful recommendation engine also stands to transform the competitive landscape of American social media.”
