Source: Perplexity AI made a TikTok US bid to ByteDance, proposing a merger that brings video to Perplexity, with ByteDance investors retaining their stakes
Elon Musk, Kevin O'Leary And More—Could Buy TikTok As Ban Starts Taipei Times : Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok US Fortune : Perplexity said to submit bid to merge with TikTok's US unit Patrick O'Rourke / Pocket-lint : Well, it happened - TikTok goes offline in the US hours before ban David Nield / TechRadar : TikTok is no longer available in the US, but the ban could soon be reversed Jai Hamid / Cryptopolitan : Perplexity AI wants to merge with TikTok US iClarified : TikTok Officially Shuts Down in the United States Livemint : Perplexity AI reportedly proposes merger with TikTok US. All you need to know Louise Matsakis / Wired : TikTok Is Unavailable in the US—and Gone From the App Stores Reuters : Perplexity AI bids to merge with TikTok US: Report Ashleigh Fields / The Hill : Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok US David Uzondu / Neowin : Report: Perplexity bids to merge with TikTok US as a potential ban nears Reinhardt Krause / Investor's Business Daily : Google Rival, Jeff Bezos-Backed Perplexity AI Seeks TikTok Merger Ari Haruni / Wall Street Pit : Perplexity AI Sets Sights on TikTok U.S. in Bold Merger Bid Tech in Asia : Perplexity said to bid to merge with TikTok US amid looming ban Bluesky: Brij Singh / @brijsingh : I'm surprised he hasn't opened an office in Greenland. No other entrepreneur capitalizes on current thing better than Arvind. He is really good at this! [embedded post] @hrbrmstr.dev : What is not being said in this bid: lots of sites—big ones—have been blocking pplx's crawler (& not just with [robots| ai].txt). This gets pplx bytespider, one of the most invasive & sprawling crawlers. — It gets them what they need most: data. — The TikTok content is 2ndary. … M.G. Siegler / @mgsiegler.com : We're now at the Hail Mary stage of the cycle... [embedded post] @johnmass : That's because all Perplexity had to offer was a stale bagel and a post-it note that said “pretty pleaseeeee” on it [embedded post] Dave Lee / @davelee.me : The only deal that's made any kind of sense since this all started? [embedded post] Mastodon: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life@mas.to : So bold. Might as well head down to the Lambourghini dealership and try to buy one with whatever change you found in your couch. . — https://www.cnbc.com/... Ian Betteridge / @ianb@mastodon.well.com : File under “things which make absolutely no sense at all” https://www.cnbc.com/... X: Thomas Schulz / @thomasschulzz : I stopped using perplexity when chatgpt integrated search. In hindsight, perplexity had a weak moat and trying to buy tiktok is a big side quest. Aaron Levie / @levie : You can just do things [image] Max Weinbach / @maxwinebach : Great publicity stunt ByteDance has been clear they have 0 interest in divesting any of TikTok US Everyone and every company making offers likely is just doing it to buy good will from consumers, at the expense of legal fees Hayden Field / @haydenfield : Scoop: Perplexity AI officially made a play for TikTok on Saturday. It submitted a bid to ByteDance to allow Perplexity to merge with TikTok U.S. and create a new entity combining Perplexity, TikTok U.S. and New Capital Partners. https://www.cnbc.com/... LinkedIn: Marty Swant : *If* this were to happen, my first thought is how this could potentially supercharge TikTok search. — Other quick related thoughts: … Pramod Gosavi : This is so bizarre. Perplexity wants to merge with TikTok US. Absolutely no synergies and not bullish signs for the company. … Forums: Hacker News : Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok r/artificial : One-Minute Daily AI News 1/18/2025 r/news : Perplexity AI makes a bid to merge with TikTok U.S. r/perplexity_ai : Perplexity AI makes a bid to merge with TikTok U.S. r/StockMarket : Perplexity AI makes a bid to merge with TikTok U.S. r/technology : Perplexity AI makes a bid to merge with TikTok U.S.