'President Trump Does Not Want TikTok to Go Dark': The TikTok Ban Deadline Was Extended Again. Here Are the Top Bidders. There will be another 90 days to try and make a deal.
By Erin Davis
Despite Kevin O'Leary's predictions that there wouldn't be a third extension, the White House has announced it will extend the deadline for TikTok's parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, to sell or face a ban.
Last year, Congress passed a law requiring TikTok to separate from ByteDance or face a permanent ban in the U.S. After multiple extensions, the deadline would have been Thursday, June 19. Now, there will be another 90 days to try and make a deal.
The new deadline will be in mid-September, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who made the announcement Wednesday.
"As he has said many times, President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark," Leavitt said in a statement.
An executive order will be signed this week, she noted.
The potential to own TikTok has attracted a slew of interested buyers, including a group called Project Liberty, which is made up of billionaire Frank McCourt, "Shark Tank" star O'Leary, and Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian.
There are also bids from AI startup Perplexity, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, mobile advertising company AppLovin, and Amazon.
