SoftBank Eyes Joining Deal for TikTok

As President Donald Trump’s September deadline for TikTok to sell its U.S. business approaches, investors are scrambling to assess or participate in a deal. One party that has recently emerged as a possible buyer: SoftBank. 

It seemed unlikely that SoftBank, one of the most ambitious and deeply pocketed private tech investors through its Vision Fund, would sit out this opportunity. But until recently, much of the focus has been on General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, two existing investors in TikTok parent company ByteDance. Both have been talking to Oracle about together challenging Microsoft to buy TikTok’s U.S. assets, at a price tag that could climb into the tens of billions of dollars.