‘Shark Tank’ investor Kevin O’Leary describes how the Supreme Court upholding TikTok’s ban would help his bid to buy the platform’s US assets from ByteDance on ‘America Reports.’
“Mr. Beautiful” Kevin O’Leary has teamed up with another investor to try to save TikTok and hopes China and the Supreme Court will let them make it beautiful again.
The “Shark Tank” star is teaming up with Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt to buy the platform’s US assets from its parent company ByteDance and “rebuild the platform in a way that gives priority privacy of its 170 million US users.”
SUPREME COURT APPEARS SKEPTICAL TO BLOCK TIKTOK BAN IN US: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
TikTok is facing a potential ban due to the Protecting Americans from Apps Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act, bill signed by President Biden which passed Congress last April with bipartisan approval. By midnight on January 19, the app could be removed from US app stores unless it is spun off from its parent company.
“I want to work with him [McCourt] because he did a lot more work on the algorithm and allowed me to be part of this deal so we could buy TikTok without buying Chinese spyware,” O’Leary said on “The Big Money Show” on Tuesday.
TikTok has faced with controversies about it is a company based in China and because it is allegedly used as spyware for the Chinese Communist Party. MPs on both sides of the aisle warned against the potential national security threat that TikTok allegedly poses through US phones.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law requiring China’s ByteDance to divest its popular short video app TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban. (Reuters/Dado Ruvić/File Photo/Reuters)
“The reason TikTok is going to be canceled in the United States soon is because of the algorithms that allow you to spy,” O’Leary said, explaining how he and McCourt will restructure the platform so users can decide whether or not to share their data with TikTok. Under their ownership, O’Leary argued, users who choose to share their data will be paid.
“If they share it and want to monetize it, they get a piece of the advertising action. I think that’s fantastic,” he said. “We’re going to make this thing work the way the market wants it to work, and then we’re going to take it all over the world.”
If their bid to take over the social media platform is successful, O’Leary explained how they would change the platform to better align with US interests.
In addition to giving users ownership of their data and removing “Chinese spyware,” the investor stressed that TikTok has the potential to grow from its current 170 million users to “past 200 million” by restoring user trust.
“We have to bring back everybody who doesn’t believe it, who doesn’t want to put it on their phone. And the way to do that is to democratize it, let people invest with us,” O’Leary said Friday on “Varney & Co,” on FOX Business.
O’Leary Ventures President Kevin O’Leary discusses Biden’s efforts to write off student debt. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“The third thing that I think everyone will find attractive, including Trump, is that we’re going to open it up so that it’s interoperable. So if you’re posting on Truth Social or on X, click here to populate TikTok. We’d all like to do that. And we would ask others, like Instagram and Meta, to do the same thing,” he added.
The investor also said that he would look to include countries like India, Switzerland, France, Canada and Germany on the platform once these changes are implemented.
“This thing is going to be the world’s biggest television network within two years,” O’Leary said of TikTok’s growth potential.
O’Leary and McCourt’s bid will be affected by a long-awaited Supreme Court ruling on the law banning the platform unless it is withdrawn, and then by ByteDance’s willingness to do so if forced to do so before the deadline. The high court heard oral arguments Friday in an expedited proceeding ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. A final decision is expected before inauguration day.
O’Leary explained that a Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban would be “good news” for their bid.
“That means the company is entering a binary decision of whether to let it close at midnight on the 19th or whether to engage with a buyer,” he told Fox News’ “America Reports” Friday. “Now, you may be aware that we put an offer — I think we’re the only union that’s formed that made a viable offer last night — to ByteDance, and they might want to start looking at it because there’s $30 billion to $40 billion of U.S. shareholder value tied up there [Chinese President Xi Jinping] wants, we can just turn it off like they did in India and that capital is wiped out. And of course that’s not good for future capital raising.”
O’Leary argued that his and McCourt’s ambitious plans for TikTok rely heavily on Xi Jinping.
“I think the only person who matters in this deal is the supreme leader, who has to decide. He controls all Chinese companies,” he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds during a joint news conference of the China-Central Asia Summit in Xian, north China’s Shaanxi province on May 19, 2023. (Photo by FLORENCE LO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
O’Leary went on to explain how China wants to be seen as a “destination” for capital, explaining that every country needs it to grow its economy, even those in a competitive position with the US like China.
“They are competing for the status of the largest economy. So if you want to be the big boy and you want to play in international markets, you don’t wipe out the shareholders’ money. It’s not just American shareholders. Every sovereign fund around the world, many of them have big investments in ByteDance “, he said.
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“But it won’t be my decision or Frank McCourt’s decision. The two of us started our union. We made an offer. Every American shareholder has our offer. They know that. And this is really up to ByteDance to decide.”
O’Leary stressed that he thinks ByteDance should seriously consider its bid after them free speech argument “fell on deaf ears” in court.
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“We’re going to make it very free speech. We’re going to make it a lot better and we’re going to make sure we follow the orders of the courts. This is the right way to go,” he said.
