Mubasher: The investors of ByteDance, a Chinese technology company that owns the short-video app TikTok, are considering exchanging their stakes in the company with equity in the TikTok assets, according to Reuters.

The ByteDance investors, including the investment firm General Atlantic, are strongly competing with major US companies, including Microsoft and Oracle, to own large stakes in the TikTok assets for sale, people familiar with the matter said.

After US President Donald Trump had threatened to ban the social media app in the US due to security concerns, the Chinese technology company has been weighing to sell TikTok's North America, Australia, and New Zealand operations to potential acquirers, such as Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp.

Under the ByteDance investors' restructuring plan, Microsoft or Oracle could acquire a minority stake in the assets although some US officials expected that a US major company will lead the bid.

The TikTok assets for sale could have potential costs between $25 billion and $30 billion; hence, the investors are in talks to use some of or all their stakes in ByteDance to finance their bid on the TikTok's assets.

The sources further remarked that some of the investors had to convince ByteDance’s founder and CEO, Yiming Zhang, to let go of TikTok.

However, Microsoft continues to lead the bid for its technical capacity to design new algorithms for TikTok that will be separated from ByteDance and its Chinese short video app Douyin.

The sources noted that Microsoft is working on how TikTok would be separated operationally from ByteDance after reaching a deal, which the Redmond, a Washington-based company hoped to sign by 15 September.

It is noteworthy to mention that previously, TikTok was valued at around $50 billion by some investors planning to control the social media app, which is much higher than peers including Snap Inc.