On January 18th, a source familiar with the matter informed Reuters that the U.S. search engine startup Perplexity AI had submitted a bid to merge with TikTok U.S., owned by ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company.
Due to the risk of a U.S. ban on TikTok starting the following Sunday if it remains linked to ByteDance, President-elect Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that he might delay the ban. CNBC was the first to report on the bid.
The proposed merger between Perplexity and TikTok U.S. would involve the integration of New Capital Partners into the new entity, according to the source.
This new structure aims to allow most of ByteDance’s current investors to keep their equity stakes and bring more video content to Perplexity. The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, mentioned that Perplexity's bid was based on a merger rather than a sale.
Perplexity AI offers search tools that provide quick answers with sources and citations, using advanced language models like OpenAI and Meta Platforms' Llama model.
TikTok, a platform popular among nearly half of all Americans, indicated on Friday that it would shut down operations unless the incoming Biden administration assures companies like Apple and Google that they will not be penalized when the ban is enforced.