As the US Supreme Court considers the TikTok ban in that country, several companies and billionaires have been rumored or have expressed interest in purchasing ByteDance’s popular social media app to avoid the ban, which is scheduled to take effect on Sunday. .
Chinese government officials have considered selling TikTok’s US operations to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, as China discusses how to handle its relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, whose ties with Musk have grown closer in recent months, Bloomberg reported. .
ByteDance, in response to the Bloomberg report, told Forbes that it “cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction.”
YouTuber MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, wrote on
Project Liberty, an internet advocacy group led by billionaire Frank McCourt, filed a proposal—backed by “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, Guggenheim Securities and others—on Jan. 9 to buy TikTok’s assets in US, saying the group would restructure the company to collect less user data.
A former TikTok employee suggested to Forbes that Amazon could potentially buy the app, as Amazon, the third-largest advertiser on the app, has deepened its relationship with the platform after announcing a partnership that allows users to browse and purchase Amazon products on TikTok.
Read: TikTok seeks to reassure its US employees before the ban deadline
Video platform Rumble offered to buy TikTok in March 2024, saying the company was “ready to join a consortium with other parties” to acquire the app, although neither Rumble nor CEO Chris Pavlovski revealed details about the offer.
Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard, expressed interest in purchasing TikTok and has discussed the idea with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others to help finance the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, although Kotick has not commented publicly on the offer.
Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC in March 2024 that he planned to “get a group together” to buy TikTok, and later told Bloomberg in May that he had reached out to “a lot of tech companies” about purchasing the app and recreation. of its algorithm, which ByteDance has said would not be included in a sale.
What companies have tried to buy TikTok?
Microsoft reportedly offered to buy TikTok from ByteDance in August 2020, and the deal—referred to by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as “the strangest thing I’ve ever worked on”—almost came together before collapsing.
Oracle and Walmart announced in September 2020 that the companies had reached a deal to acquire TikTok, but that deal fell apart after the Biden administration reportedly paused its progress to address the app’s potential security risks.
How much is TikTok worth?
Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told CBS that the financial services firm had valued TikTok at approximately $100 billion.
What to observe?
The Supreme Court noted that it will issue a ruling on the TikTok ban this week before it takes effect on January 19. The court may delay the ban until after Jan. 19, and Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar said the court could be given additional time to issue a ruling.
Read: RedNote: What you should know about the Chinese app TikTok users are moving to
Key background
President Joe Biden signed a law in April 2024 that included a national ban on TikTok unless ByteDance sold the app, after lawmakers for years raised concerns about TikTok’s ties to China.
Forbes previously reported on TikTok’s spying on journalists, the app’s promotion of Chinese propaganda criticizing US politicians, its mishandling of user data—including financial information, Social Security numbers and personal contacts—and the tracking of “ sensitive words.”
TikTok and ByteDance have denied any wrongdoing or links to the Chinese government, claiming in a legal filing in May that the proposed ban was “simply impossible: neither commercially, nor technologically, nor legally.”
Forbes Rating
Musk is the richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $428.8 billion. McCourt, the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has a net worth valued at $1.4 billion.
This article was originally publishedente by Forbes US
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