Industry News

The most popular names to buy TikTok in the US (and avoid another blackout)


Donald Trump signed last night, a few hours after his inauguration as the new president of the United States, an executive order that granted TikTok a 75-day grace period in the North American country. Over the next 75 days, TikTok will have to find a buyer to take control on the other side of the pond. (at least 50%, as Trump asks) of the business of ByteDance, the parent company of the famous social network. Otherwise, the platform could be doomed to extinction in the United States.

TikTok went black in the United States last Saturday night to comply with a federal law approved in April 2024 by Congress that required the social network to divest from its US subsidiary or, failing that, to disappear from application stores across the seas. The TikTok blackout in the United States was, however, only temporary in nature and just 12 hours later the social network returned from the darkness and resumed its activities on American soil. Donald Trump had previously announced that he would approve an executive order on Monday to postpone the application of the federal law aimed at banning TikTok in the United States (and yesterday the president effectively stuck to his word and gave the green light to that executive order) .

The famous social network is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and US authorities are concerned that potentially sensitive personal data of US TikTok users could end up in the hands of the Beijing government to be used for spurious purposes.

ByteDance has always flatly rejected the spin-off of its business in the United Statesbut on Sunday it acknowledged that it was working with Trump on a long-term solution to prevent the disappearance of TikTok on US soil, so the company could be willing to make concessions in this regard. Trump’s intention is for the United States to hold 50% ownership of TikTok through a “joint venture” with the current owners of the social network.

Below we review some candidates to take control (total or partial) of TikTok in the United States:

MrBeast

The famous youtuber MrBeastwhose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, announced on January 14 that it was willing to buy the US subsidiary of TikTok to avoid the ban of the social network on the other side of the pond.

Although his offer sounded far-fetched, MrBeast later reiterated that he was totally serious about his offer and assured that Several billionaires had contacted him to make their desire to buy TikTok a reality.

Furthermore, after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the YouTuber published a video on TikTok claiming that he was flying on a private jet to make official your interest in purchasing the ByteDance subsidiary.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk has not officially commented on the rumors that he could become the new owner of TikTok in the United States. (which inevitably draws attention considering how loquacious, almost fluent, the South African tycoon usually appears in X).

last week Blomberg News published that The Chinese Government would be contemplating the possibility of authorizing the purchase of the US business of TikTok by Elon Muskwhich has, in fact, very close ties with Beijing.

TikTok later rejected the rumor as “pure fiction,” but Musk is very used to doing business with China.which is, not in vain, one of the most important markets for the electric car manufacturer Tesla, so it could be a good candidate to tie the social network in the United States (as long as, of course, ByteDance agrees to give in and give the green light to the operation with the acquiescence of Beijing). Besides, Yesterday Donald Trump confessed that he was in favor of a possible acquisition of TikTok by his acolyte Elon Musk. “If Elon wanted to buy TikTok, there would be no problem,” the president said this Tuesday.

By adding TikTok to his portfolio, Musk would also have at his disposal a huge amount of data to train the models of your xAI artificial intelligence company.

Kevin O’Leary

Kevin O’Learya businessman and investor of Canadian origin well known in the United States for his participation in reality television. Shark Tank (in which Donald Trump also took part, by the way), officially announced last Thursday his candidacy to become the owner of the US subsidiary of TikTok.

O’Leary’s intention is to buy TikTok with the support of a group of investors called “The People’s Bid for TikTok.”. O’Leary announced his intentions a day before the Supreme Court last Friday upheld the federal law aimed at banning TikTok in the United States, but mentioned the specific amount he was willing to put on the table to take over. control of the social network.

The group formed by O’Leary to try to bid for ownership of TikTokwhich also includes Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and businessman Frank McCourt, has offered to buy the social network, renouncing ownership of its all-powerful algorithm (which will probably be the thorniest issue in the negotiations for an eventual purchase operation).

O’Leary and the group “The People’s Bid for TikTok” plan to replace the social network’s algorithm with American technologysomething that could be problematic in the long term, since the fame of the Chinese platform lies precisely in that algorithm (which would give way to a completely new one).

Larry Ellison

Larfy Ellison has not formally expressed interest in purchasing TikTok, but the name of the co-founder of the technology giant Oracle sprang from the lips of President Donald Trump yesterday (along with his friend Elon Musk) as a possible buyer of the TikTok subsidiary in the United States.

That Larry Ellison ended up buying TikTok in the United States would be a quite plausible option, since Oracle is currently a technological partner of the social network in the North American country.

Perplexity AI

AI-powered search engine Perplexity AI last entered the race to take on TikTok in the United Statess (or at least try).

Under the offer put on the table by Perplexity AI, most of ByteDance’s investors would retain the shares of the company that they currently own and In exchange, the American startup would access video content from TikTok to train its AI model.



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