TIKTOK STOCK ROCKS

Short video app’s parent valued at over $110B

TikTok — the social-media app popular with teens and at odds with lawmakers — is fast becoming a hit with investors.

Private shares of TikTok parent company ByteDance Ltd. have been trading hands at prices that value the Chinese company at over $100 billion, The Post has learned.

“We are seeing buyers willing to pay at a $110 billion valuation or higher,” one private-placement agent told The Post.

The comments echo a Bloomberg News report, also from Wednesday, that said ByteDance shares having been selling on the secondary market at prices that value it at between $105 billion and $110 billion, with one trade that pegged it as high as $140 billion.

That makes ByteDance five times bigger than its publicly traded peers like Snap, valued at $26 billion, and Twitter, at $25 billion.

Watchers say ByteDance’s sudden ascension suggests investors expect something to happen that could make the company more valuable, including a new fundraising round.

“Usually when you see this, it means something bigger is coming,” the private-placement agent said.

One Wall Street source said he expects ByteDance to launch a new financing round and a parallel loan package at a $125 billion valuation. ByteDance will choose whether to raise equity or debt after it determines which is the more profitable path, the source said.

The surge comes despite warnings by lawmakers like

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that the app popular for its quirky viral videos poses a security threat due to its China ties. Numerous US government agencies, including the Army and Transportation Security Administration, have stopped using the app for official business, including recruiting.

“TikTok is not as innocent as it sounds,” Schumer said at a press conference in February. “If you go on TikTok, the Chinese government has your data. You have no recourse.”

That hasn’t stopped TikTok from a spate of highprofile job recruiting, including when it tapped Disney’s

streaming head Kevin Mayer to be TikTok’s new chief executive this week.

In January, ByteDance appointed ex-Microsoft lawyer Erich Andersen to be its global general counsel.

A TikTok spokesman did not return calls seeking comment.

Good company Millennial fave TikTok — known for its smartphone-video sharing — is starting to put up financial numbers that compare favorably to these household names.