President-elect Donald Trump is considering an executive order to circumvent the looming ban on TikTok in the US, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
The order would allow Chinese parent company ByteDance to continue to operating the US business until a new owner is found, the report said, with Elon Musk having recently been mooted to be that buyer or the broker of a potential deal.
Yesterday it was reported that the US app could close as soon as Sunday 19 January, with the Supreme Court poised to decide on whether ByteDance must sell the US app by that date or face a ban in the country.
TikTok has argued that a sale is unfeasible and has contested the law, awaiting the Supreme Court's decision.
Analysts at Wedbush said they expect a Supreme Court ruling in the next 24 hours that will formally uphold the TikTok ban but they "ultimately believe this ban will be delayed by the Trump administration".
Once Trump is inaugurated on Monday 20 January, the White House is likely to pursue one of three options for TikTok, said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, the least likely being to accept the ban, as Trump has expressed opposition to a ban.
The second option would be to delay the ban for 90 days, with an executive action from the President "and then look to find a buyer of TikTok and/or formal partnership with US tech player.
"We continue to believe Musk will be heavily involved in finding a solution for TikTok and ultimately could build a consortium to buy TikTok.
"Other strategic/financial players are looking at this golden asset, but it needs to be formally approved by Beijing and will never be sold with the algorithm in our view."
Third, Trump could ask the Justice Department not to enforce the law, "which would be important for tech companies/Apple/Google/hosting providers not to face major fines by allowing TikTok to remain on the app store and data to be hosted."
Ives said the ban is important due to "the ripple impact this will set off with Beijing if Trump does not act and would clearly kick off China tariff negotiations onto the wrong foot right away".
He noted Beijing has a "strong relationship with Musk so there would be added comfort in this deal/potential partnership to avoid a TikTok ban in our view".
In a scenario where ByteDance sells the US operations of TikTok, this would be without the algorithm that powers the social media platform as "ByteDance will never sell this key DNA", estimating a price tag in the $40 billion to $50 billion range.