Even though the law to sell or ban TikTok has been in effect since January, the app has only been down in the U.S. for a single day. Now, The Information reports that a sale agreement that would satisfy the law is nearing completion and will be included with a new, standalone version of the app.
However, any deal would need approval from the Chinese government, which is also still locked in a dispute with the Trump administration over tariffs.
The publication reports that the Trump administration says it is close to agreeing to sell the company to a group of “non-Chinese” investors, including Oracle, with current majority owner ByteDance retaining a minority stake, which would satisfy the terms of the Foreign Adversary Control Act.
Earlier today, the Wall Street Journal reported that the General Services Administration said Oracle had reached a new deal with the federal government that “is the first of its kind to provide the entire government with a discount on cloud infrastructure,” with a 75 percent discount on licensed software.
TikTok employees are reportedly working on a new version of the app — dubbed M2, as opposed to the app’s internal designation of M — that will be released in app stores on September 5. Last month, Trump issued a third legally dubious extension to ban TikTok from U.S. app stores, which expires in mid-September. The current schedule, according to The Information, calls for the original TikTok app to leave app stores along with the launch of the new one, and then shut down completely in March 2026.
