Amazon has reportedly placed an eleventh-hour bid to acquire video app/social commerce platform TikTok. The offer, as reported Wednesday (April 2) by The New York Times (NYT), comes just days ahead of a deadline that requires TikTok’s owner ByteDance to divest the platform or face a ban. However, sources familiar with Amazon’s bid tell NYT that parties involved in the negotiations did not appear to be taking the offer seriously. One source said the offer came in a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick

Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesShares of AppLovin sank 20% on Thursday, their steepest drop on record, as another short-selling firm raised concerns about the company's digital ad technology and claimed that it's violating app store rules.AppLovin tumbled $65.92 to close at $261.70. The stock soared more than 700% last year, the biggest gain among U.S. tech companies, due to enthusiasm surrounding AppLovin's artificial intelligence technology and the growth it was spurring in its ad business. But Muddy Waters Research on Thursday became the third short-selling firm to publish a report meant to raise significant investor skepticism. The stock is down 19% in 2025 after Thursday's drop.The report said that AppLovin's ad tactics "systematically" violate app stores' terms of service by "impermissibly extracting proprietary IDs from Meta, Snap, TikTok, Reddit, Google, and others." In so doing, AppLovin is funneling targeted ads to users without their consent, Muddy Waters said."If APP is not deplatformed, logically, numerous competitors will start copying APP's techniques because there is little technology involved," the firm wrote.Last month, Fuzzy Panda Research was one of two firms, along with short-seller Culper Research, that critiqued AppLovin's AXON software, which drove its earnings growth and stock surge. The shares dropped 12% on Feb

APP stockholders: Robbins LLP reminds investors that a class action was filed against AppLovin Corporation.