The US government’s deadline instilled on TikTok parent company ByteDance to divest its US assets has elapsed. While the Trump administration has chosen to not provide an extension, discussions will continue between the US government and ByteDance.
On November 27th, ByteDance was given a seven-day extension to finalize the sale of its US assets. That extension has since come to a close on December 5th. Rather than give the company another extension, the US government has opted to formalize discussions with ByteDance regarding TikTok’s fate, according to Reuter‘s sources.
A representative from the US Treasury Department told Reuters that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States “is engaging with ByteDance to complete the divestment and other steps necessary to resolve the national security risks.” Sources have said that President Trump himself made the decision to not provide another extension during a meeting with US senior officials.
ByteDance has been conducting discussions with Oracle and Walmart regarding the sale of its US assets for TikTok. The company is hopeful to create a new US-based company dubbed TikTok Global. However, the deal has yet to be finalized.
Upon the first announcement that the Trump administration seeks to ban TikTok, the US government gave ByteDance a 90-day window to divest. Afterwards, an extension of 15 days was set in place. Following that, the November 27th extension was given. The Trump administration claimed that TikTok posed a security risk for users in the country.
A US federal judge granted ByteDance a preliminary injunction halting the US government’s order of a ban. This gave the TikTok parent company some reassurance that no further restrictions would be put into place.
