Vance expects a 'high-level' TikTok deal by the April 5 deadline

Vice President JD Vance expressed confidence Friday that a deal to sell TikTok and keep the social media app running in the U.S. would largely be in place by an April deadline.

“There will almost certainly be a high-level agreement that I think satisfies our national security concerns, allows there to be a distinct American TikTok enterprise,” Vance, whom President Donald Trump has asked to help broker the deal, said in an interview with NBC News aboard Air Force Two. 

TikTok’s fate in the U.S. has been in doubt since last year, after then-President Joe Biden signed bipartisan legislation that forces the app’s Chinese-based owner, ByteDance, to sell the app to a non-Chinese buyer or face a nationwide ban. Vance is working with national security adviser Michael Waltz to find a U.S.-based buyer. 

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office “instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce” the ban for 75 days, effectively giving TikTok until April 5 to find a U.S. buyer. Speaking with reporters Sunday on Air Force One, Trump said he hoped a deal could be done soon and noted the administration was “dealing with four different groups” that he didn’t identify. He also has said he is open to an extension if a deal isn’t reached by the deadline.

ByteDance has not publicly confirmed negotiations with any potential U.S. buyer, nor has it confirmed its willingness to sell TikTok to a U.S. bidder 

Vance, who did not offer specific details about the negotiations or the potential buyers involved, suggested Friday that there are a number of clerical issues that could push finalization of an agreement past the deadline.

“Typically, some of these deals that are much smaller and involve much less capital take months to close,” said Vance, who worked in venture capital before entering politics as a U.S. senator from Ohio. “We’re trying to close this thing by early April. I think that the outlines of this thing will be very clear. The question is whether we can get all the paper done.”

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Vance added that he was hopeful an extension wouldn’t be necessary.

“We’d like to get it done without the extension,” he said. “I think the question is, what is the equity ownership of the new joint venture? How do you do the contracts for all the investors, the customers, the service providers? … The deal itself will be very clear, but actually creating those thousands and thousands of pages of legal documents, that’s the one thing that I worry could slip.”

“I think whether it’s through an extension, or whether it’s through actually just getting the deal in place satisfies the national security concerns, I think we’re going to be in a place where we can say TikTok is operational, and it’s also operational in a way that’s protective of Americans’ data privacy and America’s national security,” he added.

In recent months, rumors have continued to swirl about potential buyers for the app, which has millions of users and has been valued at up to $50 billion. Wyoming entrepreneur Reid Rasner, CEO of the wealth management company Omnivest Financial, told NBC News last week this his offer came close to that sum, at $47.45 billion.

Other suitors have also put their names in the running, with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian most recently announcing he’s joined businessman Frank McCourt’s bid.