ByteDance hits USD480b valuation in share auction: Bloomberg

The news: A Chinese investment firm bought a block of ByteDance shares at a valuation of USD480 billion ($741.21 billion), according to sources cited by Bloomberg, as the parent company of TikTok continues to garner strong investor interest.

The numbers: Chinese venture capitalist Kathy Xu’s firm, Capital Today, won out over several other interested parties to acquire equity from Bank of China Group Investment, an early institutional investor in ByteDance. The block of stock had been priced at around USD200 million, at a USD360 billion valuations. However, with several bidders participating in the auction the price quickly rose to see Capital Today pay roughly USD300 million for the stake at a USD480 billion valuation.

The context: While a potential forced sale of TikTok had loomed over the company, as the Trump administration pushed to shift majority ownership to US investors, the current deal being discussed may avoid the most damaging outcome for ByteDance. Bloomberg reported that ByteDance could gain around half the profit from the platform’s US operations after a possible sale to US investors.

In September Trump signed an executive order approving the sale of TikTok’s US operations from Chinese parent company ByteDance to a group of primarily American investors.