China's last-minute entry into the process raises the odds that Zhang will hold on to the US operation beyond the stated US deadlines or even back out of a deal altogether
Hong Kong/Beijing — As US President Donald Trump threatened to ban the US operations of the hit app TikTok, Chinese parent ByteDance’s choices seemed to be limited to selling the business for $20bn-$30bn or leaving empty-handed.
But Beijing’s last-minute entry into the process raises the odds that Zhang will hold on to the US operation beyond the stated US deadlines or even back out of a deal altogether. It’s likely the need for approval in Washington and Beijing — along with the already complex negotiations — will push any final deal beyond the November elections in the US in any case, a person familiar with the matter has said.
The 37-year-old coder-by-training is something of a lone wolf in China’s tech industry, refusing to take money from rainmakers Tencent or Alibaba. He endured a succession of crackdowns yet managed to groom Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese cousin, into a rising internet star in the country. A fighter by nature, Zhang has several reasons to resist a TikTok sale in the clash with Trump.
Just as important, if he sells the US business, he can never get it back. Zhang would be relinquishing control over an asset that boasts upwards of a 100-million users in the US and is on the cusp of monetising that base. If TikTok gets banned in the US, the immediate outcome is it vanishes from Apple and Google app stores and software updates halt.
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