The Latest on TikTok as Sale Deadline Looms

By Brittany Siminitz | March 17, 2025

April 5, the extended deadline for a sale of TikTok that would keep it operating in the U.S., is coming up fast. As recently as March 6, Axios reported that no prospective buyers had entered negotiations with TikTok’s Chinese owners to offer the popular app a lifeline, but since then, possible suitors have emerged.

According to The Information, tech company Oracle has become the favorite to establish a partnership that would keep TikTok around here. The deal is reportedly being orchestrated by President Trump, who was trying to get Oracle to buy the U.S. operations of TikTok in 2020 (that attempt was shelved with the end of his first term in office). Forbes, citing Reuters on comments Trump made publicly, said there are four groups willing to buy TikTok, among them Oracle and Microsoft.

Ultimately, it won’t matter which company is preferred unless ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, agrees to a deal. For its part, TikTok is still making its case as an asset to the U.S. economy. “Today, Oxford Economics published a new report measuring the number of jobs benefited by TikTok,” the app announced on March 11. “Over the last seven years, TikTok has become an indispensable platform for businesses all across the country, with 7.5 million businesses on the platform employing more than 28 million workers.”

More than 3.1 million U.S. jobs directly benefit from TikTok, by either creating content or managing accounts on the platform, the report said. It also broke down the app’s economic contributions by state—which might be designed to appeal to state-level legislators.

It’s doubtful at this point that any new intel TikTok can share about its economic impact would affect its sale to a U.S. company. But TikTok was the most downloaded app, according to the latest monthly combined (App Store and Google Play) chart, and that speaks to the public’s opinion of TikTok and desire to use it.

The countdown continues.