ByteDance’s Stock Value Falls by 20% in Secondary Sale After China Crackdown

Is TikTok cheap?

Some investors think so and are buying private shares of TikTok owner ByteDance from existing investors at prices that value it at a steep discount compared to trades from earlier this year.

Recently, the family office of a Middle Eastern billionaire struck a deal in the secondary market to buy shares that valued closely held ByteDance at $320 billion, and a hedge fund bought a stake that valued the company at $350 billion, according to a person with direct knowledge of the transactions. Those figures are tens of billions of dollars lower than the $400 billion–plus valuation the company received as part of private transactions between investors before China’s crackdown on the tech sector escalated in July. Still, if ByteDance were listed at that valuation, it would rank among the top 30 publicly traded companies globally, so the trades show investors still have an appetite for the company despite a harsher regulatory environment.