Musk emerges as potential U.S. buyer of TikTok as ban deadline approaches, company calls it ‘pure fiction’ – Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG ), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL )

Chinese officials are considering Tesla Inc. Tesla CEO Musk as a potential buyer Tik Tok”The social media platform faces a January 19 deadline to divest or shut down.

what happenedBloomberg reported on Monday, citing sources and estimates, that although the discussions were preliminary, it envisioned a potential scenario in which Musk’s X platform could take over TikTok’s U.S. operations, a deal valued at between $40 billion and $50 billion. The move will combine TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users with X’s advertising reach.

Officials in Beijing, who retain influence through the “golden stock” of ByteDance’s Chinese unit, view Musk as an attractive option because of his existing ties in China through Tesla’s Shanghai factory and his ties to the candidate close relationship with president Donald Trumpthe report said.

Musk’s record on social media acquisitions includes his $44 billion twitter In 2022, he later changed its name to X.

“We cannot be expected to comment on purely fictional events,” a TikTok spokesperson told Benzinga.

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why it’s important: The deliberations come as the Supreme Court expressed support for legislation requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations. Trump, who took office on January 20, requested a delay in the ban, marking a shift from his previous stance on the platform.

The deal is extremely challenging, even for the world’s richest man, because of the tricky separation of its U.S. operations and potential financing issues. Other bidders include Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation and Oracle Corporation ORCLand a consortium headed by “Shark Tank” investors Kevin O’Leary.

If an agreement is not reached by the deadline, TikTok users will lose access to updates and security patches, but existing app installations will continue to work. Yuan Platform Company Mehta and alphabet inc. Google Google Google subsidiary Youtube Might benefit from creators migrating to their platform.

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