‘Shark Tank’ investor Kevin O’Leary explains how the Supreme Court upholding the ban on TikTok will help his bid to buy the platform’s US assets from ByteDance on ‘U.S. Reports’
“Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary is partnering with another investor to save TikTok and he 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 buy the platform’s US assets from its parent company, ByteDance, and “rebuild the platform in a way that gives priority to privacy Of its 170 million US users.”
Supreme Court seems skeptical about blocking US ban on TikTok: What to know
TikTok faces a possible ban due to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemies Controlled Applications Act Law signed by President Biden Which passed with bipartisan approval in Congress last April. As of midnight on January 19, the app may be removed from US-based app stores unless it is separated from its parent company.
“I want to work with him (McCourt) because he’s done far more work on the algorithm, and he let me be part of this deal so we could buy TikTok without buying Chinese spyware,” O’Leary said on “The Big Money Show.” Told on Tuesday.
Tiktok has it faced controversy It is a China-based company and is reportedly being used as spyware software for the Chinese Communist Party. MLAs on both sides of the aisle warned about Potential national security threat TikTok reportedly originates from US phones.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law requiring China-based ByteDance to sell its popular short video app TikTok in the United States by early next year or face a ban. . (Reuters/Dado Ruvik/File photo/Reuters)
“The reason TikTok got canceled in the United States is because of the algorithm that lets you spy,” O’Leary said. He explained how he and McCourt would restructure the platform so that users can decide whether to share their data with TikTok. No. O’Leary argued that under his ownership, users who chose to share their data would get paid.
“If they share it, and they want to monetize it, they get a cut of the advertising action. I think it’s fantastic,” he said. “We’re going to make this thing work the way the market wants it to work, and then we’ll take it all over the world.”
If his bid to acquire the social media platform is successful, O’Leary explained how he 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 emphasized that TikTok has the potential to grow from its current 170 million users to “over 200 million” by gaining user trust.
“We have to bring back everybody who doesn’t trust it, who doesn’t put it on their phone. And the way to do that is to democratize it, to get people to invest in what we have,” O’Leary said Friday. To allow.” On “Varney & Company” on Fox Business.
Kevin O’Leary, President of O’Leary Ventures, discusses Biden’s efforts to cancel 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 inter-operative. So if you’re posting on Truth Social or Click here to do so. We would like to do this. And we will also ask others like Instagram and Meta to share the same.
The investor also said how he would like to bring countries like India, Switzerland, France, Canada and Germany on the platform once these changes are implemented.
“This thing will be the biggest television network in the world in two years,” O’Leary said of TikTok’s growth potential.
O’Leary and McCourt’s bid will be affected by the Supreme Court’s much-awaited decision on the law banning the platform unless it is divested and then if ByteDance is forced to do so before the deadline. Desires to. The high court heard oral arguments Friday in a fast-track case ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. A final decision is expected before Inauguration Day.
O’Leary described how the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ban would be “good news” for his bid.
“What this means is that the company goes into a binary decision about whether to shut it down at midnight on the 19th or engage with a buyer,” he told “US Reports” on Fox News on Friday. “Now, you may know that we made an offer – I think we were the only syndicate that made a viable offer last night – to ByteDance, and they can start to consider it because $30 to $40 billion The value of the American shareholder is tied up there and if the supreme leader (Chinese President Xi Jinping) wants, we can shut it down as they did in India and that capital gets erased and of course, it “Raising is not good for future capital.”
O’Leary argued that he and McCourt’s ambitious plans for TikTok are largely dependent on Xi Jinping.
He said, “I think the only person who matters in this deal is the supreme leader, who has to take decisions. All Chinese companies are controlled by him.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds during a 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 explained how China wants to be considered a “destination” for capital, pointing out that every country needs this to grow its economy, even those at odds with China such as the US.
“They’re competing to get the status of the largest economy. So if you want to be a big boy and you want to play in international markets, you’re not going to destroy shareholder money. It’s not just for American shareholders. Every sovereign wealth fund around the world, many of them have invested heavily in ByteDance,” he said.
Get Fox Business by clicking here
“But it won’t be my decision or Frank McCourt’s decision. We both put our syndicate out there. We have made the proposal. Every single American shareholder has our proposal. They know it. And that’s really the decision to make to ByteDance.” Have to do.”
O’Leary stressed that he believes ByteDance should seriously consider his offer. free speech argument The court “turned a deaf ear.”
Click here to get the Fox News app
“We will give it complete freedom of expression. We will make it better and ensure that we follow the orders of the courts. This is the right path,” he said.
