Daily Times

TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance is valuing itself at about $300 billion after a recent buyback offer, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, even as the tech giant’s popular TikTok app faces the prospect of a looming ban in the U.S.

The TikTok parent in recent days told investors it was looking to buy back shares at about $180 a share, the newspaper said.

ByteDance investors have viewed President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House as an overall positive for TikTok’s hopes in the U.S., as per the report.

At Bloomberg BusinessWeek interview in June, Trump said, “I’m for TikTok because you need competition. If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram.” Trump had previously called TikTok a national security threat but soon after he too joined the platform, which is used by about 170 million Americans. A law signed by U.S. President Joe Biden on April 24, gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok or face a ban. The White House has said it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national-security grounds but not a ban on TikTok.

TikTok and ByteDance sued in U.S. federal court in May, seeking to block the law signed by Biden.

Both TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.