A group led by billionaire businessman and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt has formally offered to purchase TikTok from its parent firm, ByteDance, which is based in China.
The group, which goes by the name The People’s Bid for TikTok and is supported by Kevin O’Leary, a well-known investor from “Shark Tank,” announced on Thursday that it has presented ByteDance with a proposal to buy TikTok’s US assets. The offer’s value was not disclosed.
Following a legal challenge by the social media business, the bid is made only one day before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments regarding whether to uphold legislation that will ban TikTok in the United States beginning January 19 if it is not sold.
However, ByteDance has stated repeatedly that TikTok is not for sale, which could pose a serious obstacle to the plan.
ByteDance put an end to rumours that it was considering a sale of TikTok after President Joe Biden approved the legislation that might prohibit the app in April. The company stated that it had no plans to sell the service. The corporation claimed that the law “will take effect on January 19, 2025, shutting down TikTok for its more than 170 million monthly American users” in a filing to the Supreme Court, arguing that it would violate the platform’s and its users’ first amendment rights.
Responses to enquiries concerning the McCourt group’s bid were not immediately received from TikTok or ByteDance. TikTok is the first Chinese social media app to compete with the tech behemoths of the United States and achieve worldwide success.
Investment giant Guggenheim Securities, together with scholars and engineers like Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, support the People’s Bid. To seal the deal, McCourt added, the group intends to collaborate with President-elect Donald Trump.
As a possible reaction to a Chinese export control regulation requiring a license to sell sensitive technologies, the organisation intends to purchase the US version of TikTok minus its well-known algorithm and recreate it on American-designed systems. Before this, China’s commerce ministry declared that it would “firmly oppose” TikTok being forced to sell.
The firm claimed in a statement that the initiative would “minimise interruption for TikTokers and prioritise privacy and trust on the platform.”
“Millions of Americans can continue to enjoy the platform by keeping it alive without relying on the current TikTok algorithm and avoiding a ban,” McCourt, who founded the group through his internet-improvement organisation Project Liberty, said in a statement Thursday. “To close this deal, we are eager to collaborate with ByteDance, President-elect Trump, and the incoming administration.”
However, considering that the algorithm that determines what users see in their “For You” feeds is a key factor in the app’s popularity, many users and social media professionals have questioned if a sale that excludes the algorithm could be effective.
It has been difficult for other tech companies to imitate.
“We wish to dispel the myth that it cannot sell since, in the absence of the algorithm, no one will purchase it. After declaring earlier this week that he would be participating in the attempt to purchase the app, O’Leary wrote in an X post on Wednesday, “It’s not true.” “Without the algorithm, we’ll purchase it. We don’t require them. We will take care of it ourselves and restore TikTok to its former glory.
