ByteDance Denies Former Blizzard CEO’s Negotiation to Purchase TikTok

On March 10th, ByteDance stated on its official Toutiao account that media had forwarded foreign reports claiming that the former CEO of Blizzard had contacted Zhang Yiming and was considering a $100 billion acquisition of TikTok. The report is not true. After verification, the company’s founder Zhang Yiming did not discuss any related matters with anyone.

Early on the morning of March 8th Beijing time, the US House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously passed a bill to separate TikTok from ByteDance with a vote of 50:0. However, in terms of legal procedures, this bill still has a long way to go before becoming official law.

It is reported that the divestiture bill will force ByteDance to sell TikTok, otherwise Apple, Google and other app stores will be forced to stop providing network hosting services for TikTok, and TikTok will also be unable to do business with other American companies.

A spokesperson for TikTok responded to the bill, saying: “No matter how it is disguised, this bill is a complete ban on TikTok. This legislation will trample on the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive a platform relied upon by 5 million small businesses for development and job creation.”

SEE ALSO: Jiang Lu, Head of Google’s VideoPoet Project, Joined TikTok