Sources: a small group of ByteDance's US investors are discussing the possibility of joining forces to buy a majority stake in TikTok
A small group of ByteDance's U.S. investors is discussing with the company's top management the possibility of joining forces to buy a majority stake in TikTok …
The Information
Context & Ripple Effects
In July 2020, with TikTok's US future under Washington scrutiny, a small group of ByteDance's American investors began discussing with management whether to club together and buy a majority of the app outright — an investor-led rescue rather than a sale to a strategic buyer. Days later, reporting showed the same group valuing TikTok at around $50B, roughly 50x its projected 2020 revenue, while ByteDance weighed narrower fallbacks like selling only the US business or splitting off its international arm.
The reason this matters beyond one deal cycle: the same structure kept resurfacing. In 2023 TikTok leadership floated divestiture as a last resort if regulators rejected the existing proposal, and by 2024-2025 the conversation had matured into ByteDance formally exploring a majority sale of TikTok US — without the recommendation algorithm — with Blackstone evaluating a minority ticket alongside the existing non-Chinese shareholders.
First-order effects
If the consortium proceeds, ByteDance cedes majority control of TikTok to its own US backers while — per the report — purported links to China persist, putting the arrangement on a collision course with the regulator review that later drove the divestiture debate.
Second-order effects
A $50B-class valuation set by insiders, at 50x projected revenue, becomes the anchor price for every subsequent option on the table, including ByteDance's narrower fallbacks of a US-only sale or an international spin-off.
Third-order effects
The pattern that holds across 2020-2025 is that US political pressure converts Chinese ownership into a recurring restructuring problem rather than a one-time fix — ending in formal sale scenarios stripped of the algorithm and passive financial investors like Blackstone circling the equity.
The trend: Chinese-owned consumer platforms under US regulatory pressure are being pushed toward investor-led ownership carve-outs, a process that has stretched from emergency rescue talks in 2020 to structured majority-sale scenarios today.
A possible almost last resort option for Bytedance and TikTok is being discussed by a small group of investors. Key scoop from @JuroOsawa and @cityofthetown https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
“A group of existing ByteDance shareholders, including Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic and New Enterprise Associates, would collectively buy the majority stake [in TikTok], said people familiar with the idea under discussion.” https://thein.fo/...
I'm pretty sure Google, Microsoft, and Amazon would all happily and materially outbid existing shareholders for a majority stake in TikTok. https://twitter.com/...
“A group of existing ByteDance shareholders, possibly including @Sequoia, @GeneralAtlantic, @SoftBank and @nea, would collectively buy the majority stake in @tiktok_us” https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
This is sort of where I think it would and will go, but the question is the product: would Uncle Sam think everything is immediately kosher just cause of an ownership change. https://www.techmeme.com/...
TikTok desperate to find a way to assure Washington it won't be under the thumb of Beijing. Will be v tough but some sort of spinoff is a prerequisite https://twitter.com/...
Don't sanction us, we're hiring >> Under fire from Washington, TikTok touts U.S. job growth https://www.axios.com/...
@dsilverman Dwight ‘The Masktivist’ Silverman on x
House votes to ban TikTok on federal devices https://www.politico.com/... via @politico Hmm. I wonder how many federal employees have TikTok on their govt-issued phones, anyway. This may not affect a lot of people.
Exclusive: TikTok says it plans to add thousands of jobs in the U.S. over the next few years — ripping a familiar page from the “companies under fire” playbook. https://www.axios.com/...
Despite ByteDance's laughable assurance that it would never give data to Beijing even if asked, the House voted to ban TikTok on federal devices. I stand by my original hottake that TikTok has to be spun off from ByteDance to overcome this PR nightmare. https://www.politico.com/.…