TikTok Denies Smaller Rival Triller Made $20B Buyout Offer

ByteDance-owned video-sharing app TikTok maintains that it never received a buyout offer from rival Triller and London-based Centricus Asset Management, as claimed by the latter two, according to CNBC.

What Happened: “We can confirm that we are not and will not be in talks with them. Still, we are flattered by how much they admire TikTok,” a spokesperson for the ByteDance subsidiary told CNBC.

Bloomberg earlier reported that Triller and Centricus have made a joint bid of $20 billion for TikTok's business operations in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and India.

The New York-based TikTok rival confirmed the Bloomberg report in a statement to The Verge.

“We are not crazy, we are not out here just pretending to have a bid and not have a bid," Triller Executive Chairman Bobby Sarnevesht told CNBC. "That doesn’t make any sense."

Why It Matters: It isn't immediately clear how Triller and Centricus would fund such a bid for TikTok.

As noted by CNBC earlier, Centricus, on its website, says it oversees $27 billion in assets. Meanwhile, Crunchbase esimated Triller's post-money valuation to be between $100 million to $500 million, as of October last year.

A rival bid from behemoths Microsoft Corporation MSFT and Walmart Inc WMT is said to value the short-form video app at $30 billion, according to CNBC.

The Trump administration flagged TikTok as a potential national security threat amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and China. Although the company is deliberating legal options against this blaring spotlight, another alternative for TikTok is to consider offloading its operations in the United States through a business sale.

Oracle Corporation ORCL is also in the mix to acquire TikTok's operations in certain countries, including the U.S.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology have also amended domestic regulations for the sale of certain technologies to foreign buyers, presenting another challenge for ByteDance in its efforts to sell TikTok.