‘Shark Tank’ investor Kevin O’Leary explains how the Supreme Court upholding TikTok’s ban would help his bid to buy the platform’s U.S. assets from ByteDance on ‘America Reports.’
“Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary is teaming up with another investor to try 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 buy the platform’s U.S. assets from its parent company, ByteDance, and “rebuild the platform in a way that gives priority to confidentiality of its 170 million American users.”
SUPREME COURT APPEARS SKEPTICAL THAT US TIKTOK BAN WILL BE BLOCKED: WHAT TO KNOW
TikTok faces a potential ban due to the Protecting Americans from Apps Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act, a law signed by President Biden which passed Congress last April with bipartisan approval. By midnight on January 19, the app could be removed from US-based app stores unless it is spun off from its parent company.
“I want to work with him [McCourt] because he’s done a lot more work on the algorithm, and he’s letting me in on this deal so we can buy TikTok without buying the Chinese spyware,” O’Leary told “The Big Money Show” Tuesday .
TikTok has faces controversy over it is a company based in China and was allegedly used as spyware for the Chinese Communist Party. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle warned the potential national security threat that TikTok would pose via American phones.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law requiring Chinese company ByteDance to divest its popular short-video app TikTok in the United States by early next year, or face a prohibition. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/File photo / Reuters)
“The reason TikTok is about to be canceled in the United States is because of algorithms that allow you to spy,” O’Leary said, explaining how he and McCourt would restructure the platform so that users Users can decide whether to share their data with TikTok or not. According to O’Leary, under their ownership, users who chose to share their data would 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, and then we’re going to expand it all over the world.”
If their bid to acquire the social media platform is successful, O’Leary outlined 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 highlighted that TikTok has the potential to grow from its current 170 million users to “over 200 million” by regaining user trust.
“We need to get back everyone who doesn’t trust it, who doesn’t want to put it on their phone. And the way to do that is to democratize it, to allow people to invest alongside us,” said O’Leary on Friday. on “Varney & Co,” on FOX Business.
O’Leary Ventures President Kevin O’Leary discusses Biden’s efforts to cancel student debt. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“The third thing that I think everyone is going to find interesting, including Trump, is that we’re going to open it up to be interoperable. So if you’re posting on Truth Social or on X, click here to fill out TikTok. Everyone would like to do this. And we would ask others, like Instagram and Meta, to do the same thing,” he added.
The investor also explained how it would look to bring countries like India, Switzerland, France, Canada and Germany onto the platform after these changes are implemented.
“This thing will be the biggest television network in the world within two years,” O’Leary said of TikTok’s growth potential.
SUPREME COURT WEIGHS BAN ON TIKTOK FRIDAY; NATIONAL SECURITY AND FREE SPEECH ARGUMENTS CONSIDERED
O’Leary and McCourt’s bid will be impacted by the Supreme Court’s highly anticipated ruling on the law banning the platform unless it is divested, and then by ByteDance’s willingness to do so if their hand is forced before the deadline. The high court heard oral arguments Friday in a case fast-tracked ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. A final decision is expected before Inauguration Day.
O’Leary said a Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban would be “good news” for their candidacy.
“That means the company is making a binary decision about whether to close at midnight on the 19th or engage with a buyer,” he told Fox News’ “America Reports” on Friday. “Now you may know that we made an offer – I think we are the only formed union that made a viable offer last night – to ByteDance, and they may want to start thinking about it because there is $30 billion to $40 billion of American shareholder value is tied there. [Chinese President Xi Jinping] we wish, we can just shut it down like they did in India and that capital will be 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 depend heavily on Xi Jinping.
“I think the only person who matters in this deal is the Supreme Leader, who must 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, north China’s Shaanxi Province, May 19, 2023. (Photo by FLORENCE LO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
O’Leary then explained how China wanted to be seen as a “destination” for capital, explaining that all countries need it to grow their economies, even those in contradictory positions with the United States, such as China.
“They’re competing for status as the largest economy. So if you want to be a big boy and play in international markets, you don’t wipe out shareholders’ money. It’s not just about U.S. shareholders “All the sovereign wealth funds around the world, many of them are investing heavily in ByteDance,” he said.
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“But it won’t be my decision or Frank McCourt’s. We both put our union in place. We made the offer. Every American shareholder has our offer. They know it. And it’s really for C “It’s ByteDance that decides.”
O’Leary stressed that he thinks ByteDance should seriously consider its offer after their free speech argument in court “fell on deaf ears.”
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“We will make freedom of expression very great. We will improve it considerably and we will ensure that we respect the order of the courts. This is the right path,” he said.
