TikTok parent company shelves IPO plan

ByteDance, the parent company of short-form video app TikTok, has shelved its planned initial public offering.

The company was recently valued at US$180 billion and had been considering an IPO in the US or Hong Kong. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, the company has indefinitely paused these plans. 

While the company had previously been a target of the Trump administration, the report claims that this latest episode comes as a result of pressure from Beijing regulators. It notes that regulators in the country have raised concerns about data security and other issues. 

While the reports are new, the decision to shelve the IPO apparently came back in March after ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming met with Chinese regulators. 

An opening for a new chief financial officer at ByteDance is also attributed as a reason for the pause.

The news comes as a part of a crackdown from Chinese authorities on data protection, security and competition regulations. The government has apparently taken a dim view of any potential US listings, due to the greater disclosure required by the markets which could compromise tech companies.

The news however is not all bad for TikTok. The Biden administration has formally asked two federal appeals courts to dismiss the Justice Department’s legal challenges that barred the Trump administration’s attempts at banning downloads of the app.

It has argued that the legal challenges are now effectively worthless following the Commerce Department’s move last month to formally withdraw a list of prohibited transactions with TikTok and Tencent’s messaging app WeChat.