Axel Springer proposed taking a stake in TikTok’s business in Europe, with CEO Mathias Döpfner raising the idea at a January meeting in Berlin with Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to France, according to the Financial Times. Axel Springer later brought the proposal to the European Commission, which didn’t back it, and ByteDance said no formal acquisition talks ever happened. Döpfner has argued that TikTok should be handed to democratic shareholders because it could be used to spread propaganda, and Axel Springer confirmed it wants a European solution for the app. The idea mirrors TikTok’s US restructuring, which moved its American business into a $14 billion joint venture led by Oracle to settle national security concerns about its Chinese owner.
