Kevin O’Leary Puts $20 Billion TikTok Funding Offer On The Table: ‘Very Interesting, Complicated, Crazy Situation’
Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Leary Ventures, joined ‘America’s Newsroom’ after the Supreme Court upheld the upcoming sell or freeze rule to discuss his efforts to buy TikTok.
It’s a deal Tik Tok can’t refuse: $20 billion in cash from legendary entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary.
“There’s $20 billion on the table right now. Cash,” O’Leary said In “US Newsroom”. Friday, minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law requiring the Chinese company to be sold or banned.
“There’s a reason Congress put this order before the Supreme Court. There’s a reason they made this decision. It’s not worth the risk,” he continued. “And the obvious solution is to sell it to an American syndicate, according to the order.”
In its decision, the Supreme Court upheld the Americans Under Foreign Enemy Control Act, which had broad bipartisan support for Congress last April. The law TikTok gave nine months To release ByteDance from its Chinese parent company or be removed from US-based app stores and hosting services.
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Congress first cited concerns over China’s ownership of the app, which could mean the app could be weaponized or used to collect large amounts of user data, including from the 170 million Americans who use TikTok.
Kevin O’Leary offered $20 billion in cash to buy TikTok. (Getty Images)
TikTok, ByteDance and many of the app’s users quickly sued to block the ban in May, saying the law would destroy free speech for the millions of Americans who use the platform. After a lower court upheld the ban, the Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok’s emergency request to block or pause the law’s implementation on a fast-track timeline nine days before the ban takes effect.
But now that TikTok will “go dark” at midnight on January 19, O’Leary notes, the clock is ticking to finalize a deal.
“At midnight on the 19th, any service provider — it could be Apple, it could be Oracle, it could be a video compression technology company that gets paid as a consultant, any of them — to keep this thing alive, (a) $5,000 a day.” The fine is 170 million dollars.
Kevin O’Leary, chairman of O’Leary Ventures, responded to the latest developments surrounding the California wildfires, the possible sale of TikTok and his recent meeting with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
President-elect Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that his “decision on TikTok is coming in the near future,” but that, as President, Trump may delay by not strictly enforcing the law. This allows more time for Tiki Tok to find a buyer, continue to operate in its current state, or take other steps that support its current state.
“We don’t know if an executive order can override a law from Congress. There’s a case where it was successfully used in 1937, but you don’t know. So now, unless the company (a) deal. It can be bought by an American syndicate, and now the executive, Biden, for 90 days. Wave, this thing goes dark at midnight,” O’Leary added.
Because who is going to take 1,000,000,007 accidents in the middle of the night? Who does that? What advice do you recommend? This is the most fun, complicated, crazy situation I’ve ever been involved in. I’m really excited about it.”
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“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary outlined how the Supreme Court upholding a ban on TikTok could help the platform’s bid to buy ByteDance’s U.S. assets via “U.S. Reports.”
White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt on Friday’s “Maria Batiromo Wall Street” confirmed that the president-elect is actively looking at ways to save Tik Tok.
“TikTok has repeatedly stated that it believes that tens of millions of Americans have an app that expresses their First Amendment rights, and the federal government cannot simply shut down those First Amendment rights and violate the constitutional rights of tens of millions of Americans to freely express their opinions on this app,” Levitt said. “That being said, of course the best outcome for everyone is for an American company to own this application.”
Fox News’ Brian Deppish contributed to this report.
