Perplexity AI makes a fresh bid for TikTok Merger
Perplexity AI, a free AI-powered conversational search engine, has made a fresh bid for a merger with TikTok. Under this proposal, the US government would own 50% of the new company. The proposal was reportedly discussed with Reuter and the Associated Press.
This is not the first time Perplexity has proposed a bid to merge with TikTok US after the US government clampdown on TikTok.
The initial proposal, to which ByteDance has not replied, aimed to establish a new framework that would incorporate capital from other investors and combine Perplexity, a San Francisco-based company, with TikTok’s U.S. operation.
In this current Proposal, ByteDance would sell TikTok U.S. to the investors as part of the plan, giving TikTok’s current investors stock in the business. ByteDance would retain TikTok’s main recommendation system, which would not be included in the proposal.
Approval of the proposal implies that the arrangement would benefit ByteDance’s investors by allowing them to maintain their connections with TikTok. However, according to the source, it would need to ensure “complete U.S. board control.”
TikTok US future is still uncertain. This week, another rumor said the White House was negotiating an agreement to hire Oracle, which currently supplies the infrastructure for TikTok U.S. traffic. When questioned, Trump stated that he had discussed TikTok with “many people” but “not with Oracle.”
