WHEN: Today, Wednesday, April 2, 2025
WHERE: CNBC’s “Halftime Report”
Following is the unofficial transcript of breaking news from CNBC’s David Faber on “Halftime Report” (M-F, 12PM-1PM ET) today, Wednesday, April 2. Video will be available on CNBC.com.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
SCOTT WAPNER: Let me just move real quick because I want to get back to that news that we began the show with really this report of a possible transaction between Amazon and TikTok. If there’s a big, high-profile deal to potentially be had, you can bet that David Faber probably has details on it. In fact, he sat down at our desk here at Post Nine. What do you know?
DAVID FABER: You know been tracking this one for forever, literally since the summer of 2020 in fact, towards the end of the first Trump administration when they were banning TikTok and there were lots of efforts being made, as you well know Scott as well, to buy what has only become an even more popular app in the four and a half plus years since then. As our viewers probably aware of though, a bill was passed in Congress essentially saying, hey, the app has to find a new home that is completely not controlled by a foreign adversary in this case, the Chinese, of course, and President Trump upon regaining office put a 90-day moratorium or so on that. So we’re coming up on the date by which some deal needs to be done. What I’m hearing today, in addition, of course, what we’re hearing from the New York Times in terms of Amazon’s interest and I was hearing this this morning, Scott, is that we may get an announcement involving the future of TikTok today, along with perhaps so much else that’s coming at us. Not completely clear, but April 5 is the deadline. So of course, that is looming, regardless of whether it is as soon as today, and while the New York Times is reporting this on Amazon and they do say that it sort of may not be taken as seriously by those involved, I’ve been tracking a deal that has perhaps more of a chance, which is simply one in which you would essentially dilute down the ownership of ByteDance below 20%, allow many of the current owners of ByteDance to step up, bring in new capital and essentially say it is no longer controlled by Chinese adversary. Oracle would still be involved in that are again, people may recall that Oracle is where the servers are housed for TikTok. But it’s interesting to note the presence of Amazon and the benefits that might accrue to them as a result of taking control of TikTok Shops and the user data that they get from that and what is essentially become a very popular way to buy things, in terms of live shopping on that platform than QVC, but for the modern age, and I’m also aware of another strategic, my sources will not, that unnamed at this point, not quite as large as Amazon, but another major player that also has interest. All of the players, apparently down in DC, many of them told to show up today is what I’ve been told, in part because there may be something that comes out later or there may be further negotiating necessary.
WAPNER: I mean you’ve talked about this so many times along the way as, as you’ve said, I mean, Steve Mnuchin, the former treasury secretary was a name that was in the mix.
FABER: Totally interested.
WAPNER: Bobby Kotick was a name—
FABER: That’s correct. Way back when.
WAPNER: Big venture names were in the mix. What I hear you saying here, though, is that yes, we’ve seen this headline regarding Amazon, but the buyer is still, potential buyer, is still very far from certain, even as the decision could be closer and closer, if not today.
FABER: That’s true and then you could, even if you were to get an announcement along the lines of what we’ve been sort of expecting more would be the case of diluting down ByteDance, having many of the current owners step up, bringing in some new capital, you still might get opposition to that. Remember, this was passed by the Congress and signed by President Biden. You might get opposition saying, well, the Chinese are still involved. You still haven’t thwarted, perhaps, their ability to spy on on users of the service. And so even if you do get a deal, Scott, it’s not completely clear to me that you wouldn’t have an Amazon perhaps be trying to say, hey, we’re the better alternative, or again, another company do the same. So I guess in some ways, it may be far from done, but we may certainly get some clarity about what’s going to happen to the service soon.
