ByteDance Starts New Round of Stock Buybacks

BEIJING, March 6 (AsianFin)— China’s tech giant ByteDance will embark on a new round of stock buybacks. The repurchase price for current employees will be $170 per share, while former employees will have their stocks bought back at $145 per share.

This buyback price marks a slight increase from the $160 per share buyback plan announced in November last year, reflecting the changes in the stock market over the past six months, with the Nasdaq index rising by about 20%. ByteDance reportedly has no plans for IPO.

ByteDance recorded a year-on-year increase of 43% in revenue to $30.9 billion in the third quarter of 2023, boosted by accelerated growth in its advertising and e-commerce segments. The data also indicates that ByteDance's revenue growth rate is nearly double that of Meta, the parent company of Facebook.

ByteDance has been providing employees with stock buyback opportunities since 2017. The company traditionally offers two rounds of stock buybacks each year, one in the first half and one in the second half, with adjustments made to the price each time.

During ByteDance's heydays, investors, including Tiger Global, valued the company at over $400 billion. In December of last year, ByteDance proposed a buyback of up to $5 billion worth of shares at $160 per share from existing investors, placing its valuation at $268 billion.

Apart from ByteDance, several other privately held startups with high valuations have introduced buyback programs for their employees. This includes mobile payment company Stripe and space exploration company SpaceX.