The world’s richest person Elon Musk would likely be looking at a price tag similar to what he paid for Twitter if a deal materializes to buy the American operations of TikTok, according to one well-known analyst covering Musk--as China reportedly mulls allowing a sale to Musk to prevent an all-out U.S. ban.
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Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2025/01/14/heres-how-much-elon-musk-could-buy-tiktok-for-as-china-reportedly-eyes-deal/
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NewsTranscript
00:00According to a well-known analyst covering billionaire Elon Musk, the richest man in
00:05the world is eyeing a possible purchase of TikTok, as its January 19th sale deadline
00:10quickly approaches.
00:11TikTok parent ByteDance would likely look for a sum of $40-50 billion for the U.S. operations
00:18of the hit app, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a Tuesday note to clients.
00:23That's in the range of the $44 billion Musk paid in 2022 for Twitter, now known as X,
00:29and well above the roughly $20 billion bid made by the U.S.-led consortium Project Liberty
00:34last week.
00:36However, a TikTok spokesperson dismissed the idea of a sale to Musk as, quote, pure fiction
00:42in a statement to several outlets.
00:45Musk has yet to comment on the reports, which don't mention whether Musk has expressed
00:49interest in such an acquisition.
00:52The acquisition of the U.S. operations of TikTok would be a, quote, golden asset pickup
00:57for Musk and his social media company X, added Ives, who covered Twitter when it was
01:01a public company and now covers Tesla and the American technology industry at large.
01:08Reports from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal on Chinese officials' discussions
01:12about Musk are, quote, not a total shock given Musk's tight relationship with President-elect
01:18Donald Trump, Ives added.
01:21Also of note, Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla, his largest business, does a significant
01:26amount of business in China.
01:29About 23 percent, or $5.7 billion, of Tesla's $25.2 billion in revenue in its most recent
01:36quarter came from China.
01:39TikTok will be banned Sunday unless ByteDance divests its U.S. operations to an American
01:45entity, though the Supreme Court will soon rule on an appeal to the ban, and Trump, who
01:50has criticized the idea of banning TikTok, may be able to extend the deadline by 90 days
01:55after his Monday inauguration.
01:58For more on this story, read Derek Saul's article linked in the description.