‘Shark Tank’ investor Kevin O’Leary details how the Supreme Court upholding a ban on TikTok would help him in his bid to purchase the platform’s U.S. assets from ByteDance on ‘America Reports.’
“Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary is partnering up with another investor in a bid to save TikTok and hopes China and the Supreme Court will allow them to make it “wonderful again.”
The “Shark Tank” star is teaming up with Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt to purchase the platform’s U.S. assets from its parent company, ByteDance, and “rebuild the platform in a way that prioritizes the privacy of its 170 million American users.”
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TikTok is facing a potential ban due to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a law signed by President Biden that passed in Congress last April with bipartisan approval. By midnight on January 19, the app could be removed from U.S. based app stores unless it is divested from its parent company.
“I want to work with him [McCourt] because he’s done far more work on the algorithm, and he lets me be part of this deal so that we can buy TikTok without buying the Chinese spyware” O’Leary told “The Big Money Show” Tuesday.
TikTok has faced controversy over it being a China-based company and for allegedly being used as spyware software for the Chinese Communist Party. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have warned about the potential national security threat TikTok allegedly poses via U.S. phones.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law requiring Chinese-based ByteDance to divest its popular short video app TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/File Photo / Reuters)
“The reason TikTok is about to get canceled in the United States is because of algorithms that let you spy,” O’Leary said, explaining how he and McCourt would restructure the platform so that users could decide whether to share their data with TikTok or not. Under their ownership, O’Leary argued, users that elected to share their data would get paid.
“If they do share it, and they 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 around the world.”
If their bid to acquire the social media platform is successful, O’Leary explained how they would change the platform to better align with U.S. interests.
Besides giving users ownership of their data and stripping out the “Chinese spyware”, the investor emphasized TikTok has the potential to grow from its current 170 million users to “past 200 million” by regaining user trust.
“We’ve got to get everybody back that doesn’t trust it, that wouldn’t put it on their phone. And the way to do that is to democratize it, allow people to invest beside us,” O’Leary said Friday on “Varney & Co,” on FOX Business.
O’Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O’Leary discusses Biden’s efforts to cancel student debt. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“The third thing I think everybody’s going to find attractive, including Trump, is we’re going to open it so that it’s inter-operative. So if you’re posting on Truth Social or on X, click here to populate TikTok. Everybody would want to do that. And we would ask others, like Instagram and Meta, let’s do the same thing. Let’s share two ways,” he added.
The investor also said how he would look to get countries like India, Switzerland, France, Canada and Germany onto the platform after these changes were instituted.
“This thing will become the world’s largest television network in a matter of two years,” O’Leary said about TikTok’s growth potential.
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O’Leary and McCourt’s bid will be impacted by the Supreme Court’s much anticipated ruling on the law to ban the platform unless it is divested and then ByteDance’s willingness to do so if their hand is forced before the deadline. The high court heard oral arguments on Friday in a fast-tracked case ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. A final decision is expected before Inauguration Day.
O’Leary explained how a Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban would be “good news” for their bid.
“What that means is that the company goes into a binary decision as to whether to let it be shut down midnight on the 19th or engage with a buyer,” he told “America Reports” Friday on Fox News. “Now, you may be aware that we have put an offer – I think we’re the only syndicate formed that gave a viable offer last night – to ByteDance, and they may want to start considering it because there’s $30 to $40 billion worth of American shareholder’s value tied up there. And if the Supreme leader [Chinese President Xi Jinping] wishes to, we can just shut it off as they did in India and that capital gets erased. And of course, that’s not good for future capital raising.”
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O’Leary argued his and McCourt’s ambitious plans for TikTok heavily rely on Xi Jinping.
“I think the only person that matters in this deal is the Supreme leader, who’s got to decide. All Chinese companies are controlled by him,” he said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds during the joint press conference of the China-Central Asia Summit in Xian, in China’s northern 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 considered a “destination” for capital, explaining that every country needs it to grow their economy, even those in adversarial positions with the U.S. like China.
“They’re competing for the largest economy status. So if you want to be a big boy and you want to play in international markets, you don’t wipe out shareholder money. It’s not just U.S. shareholders. Every sovereign wealth fund around the world, many of them have huge 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 have put our syndicate out there. We’ve made the offer. Every single American shareholder has our offer. They know it. And this is really up for ByteDance to decide.”
O’Leary stressed that he thinks ByteDance should give their offer serious consideration after their free speech argument in court “fell on deaf ears.”
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“We’ll make it very free speech. We’ll make it way better and we’ll make sure we abide by the order of the courts. This is the right path,” he said.
