ByteDance has earned more time to restructure ownership of its video sharing app TikTok in the US after the Trump administration granted another extension on a deadline for the business to be sold.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US granted a one-week extension on the deadline, which was set to expire on Friday, the company’s lawyers and the US Treasury said on Wednesday.
The new timeline gives ByteDance until December 4 to secure an arrangement that resolves US national security concerns about TikTok or potentially be forced to sell the app’s US operations.
The Treasury said the extension was granted “to allow time to review a revised submission that [Cfius] recently received”.
This is the second time ByteDance has won more time form Cfius to finalise a deal, following months of negotiations between the Chinese company, US investors and President Donald Trump’s administration.
This month, ByteDance said it had submitted a proposal to restructure TikTok’s US operations as a new entity wholly owned by Oracle, the Silicon Valley tech group; Walmart, the retailer; and ByteDance’s US investors.
The Chinese company had previously sought to retain a majority ownership interest in TikTok, presenting a sticking point in the negotiations.
In September, Mr Trump gave his preliminary approval to a deal that would create a new TikTok Global entity headquartered in the US, with Oracle overseeing the security of American user data. But he later appeared to backtrack after ByteDance and Oracle released contradictory statements about who would own the new entity.
ByteDance has petitioned a court to review an executive order signed by Mr Trump that could potentially force it to divest TikTok in the US. The company has also accused the White House of delaying approval of its earlier proposal, which it believed would satisfy national security concerns.
“In the nearly two months since the president gave his preliminary approval to our proposal to satisfy those concerns, we have offered detailed solutions to finalise that agreement — but have received no substantive feedback on our extensive data privacy and security framework,” ByteDance said earlier this month.
Separately, ByteDance has won a reprieve against commerce department rules that would have effectively banned the app in the US this month after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the ban. Department of Justice attorneys have appealed the court order.
ByteDance declined to comment on Wednesday’s extension.
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington
Source: Economy - ft.com
