One of the most prominent business people in America and Shark Tank’s investor, Kevin O’Leary, has made an offer to buy the China-owned app, TikTok, amid plans to ban the app in the US.
The Shark Tank investor said on Wednesday that he would set up a crowdfunding website to acquire and host the app in the United States.
“If this order goes through, it’s got to be sold. I’m going to put up my hand and say I’ll buy it, and I’ll tell you why,” O’Leary said on “Fox & Friends”.
“What I’m proposing is purchasing these assets into a new American company. I’ll guarantee the servers are on American soil. I’ll guarantee you will close the Chinese back doors in the code.
“I’ll guarantee it becomes safe for the users, the parents, small business and large business,” he continued. “It’ll be an American company.”
O’Leary has joined the group of investors who have expressed interest in purchasing the popular short-form video platform.
Newsng gathered that Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt are among his possible bid rivals.
The crowdfunding campaign would be governed by US regulations if it were to launch, which would restrict investors to those who make more than US$200,000 or meet certain financial requirements.
For the next eighteen months, O’Leary said, he intends to oversee TikTok’s transition into his ownership while cooperating with both Democrats and Republicans who support the measure.
“I would ask permission to leave 20, 30% with the Chinese people because they’ll have a non-control, passive position. They will not control the board.
“They will have no say in how we operate the company,” he said, “and therefore will resolve this issue around free speech. Nobody wants to lose the app.”
There isn’t much consensus over TikTok’s cost. One estimate placed the US company’s worth at $100 billion, while another claims it has little bearing on ByteDance’s earnings.
If the site is offered without its “For You Page” algorithm, which has been attributed to its success, it can also be less appealing.
TikTok has stated that it has no plans to sell the company in the wake of a US law that requires it to sell the immensely popular video app or face bans in the US.
