How a sale of TikTok would work

THERE'S A NEW parlour game on Wall Street: Guessing TikTok's next owner. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that delayed enforcement of a law that banned the popular video app. Under the order, the app must now be sold to a non-Chinese owner by early April.

- Lauren Hirsch & Sapna Maheshwari February 4

allow the export of its all-important algorithm. And it's not clear TikTok's American investors are interested in a sale, either.

Here is what we know about what happens next:

Who wants to buy TikTok?

Trump has floated a number of names in public recently, including Musk, Microsoft and Oracle. In 2020, Microsoft, Oracle and Walmart tried to buy TikTok before those talks fell apart.

Other potential bidders include Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the payroll firm Employer.com, who has put together a consortium that includes the chief executive of Roblox, the video game platform.

The "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary is part of a bid from the billionaire Frank McCourt, who has been seeking to buy TikTok without its coveted algorithm.