TikTok parent ByteDance Ltd. is valuing itself around $300 billion, one of the highest valuations ever for the Chinese tech company, even as it fights to maintain its popular social-media app’s presence in the US, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
The valuation came in a recent buyback offer by ByteDance, the Journal said, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter. TikTok would be banned in the US under a federal law unless ByteDance sells the app to an American owner by mid-January.
ByteDance’s valuation has climbed in a series of buybacks, the Journal said, noting a valuation of almost $225 billion in a tender offer to employees in October 2023. A December 2023 buyback boosted the valuation to $268 billion, the Journal said, citing a company email to investors seen by the paper.
President-elect Donald Trump once favored the pending TikTok ban but has more recently suggested it’s a bad idea. Though any reversal or softening of the ban would be complicated, Trump’s election victory “significantly improves the picture for TikTok — no question about it,” former National Security Agency General Counsel Glenn Gerstell said in an interview with Bloomberg.
