Speculation is rising around MrBeast's bid in buying TikTok, but Kevin O'Leary remains firm that his $20 billion offer is the "only" one that has the coding and technology capabilities.
Jimmy Donaldson — better known online as MrBeast — isn’t in the TikTok bidding race just yet, according to a representative for the YouTube star
Will TikTok find a U.S. buyer to remain legal? After Trump vowed to make a deal to save the app, MrBeast has emerged as part of a joint bid.
The platform is in need of saving in the United States, where approximately 170 million people have TikTok accounts. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law that will ban the platform on Jan. 19 unless TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance divests its U.S. operations.
After the bipartisan TikTok law was signed by former President Joe Biden in April, ByteDance said it did not have plans to sell the platform and fought the statute in court for months. China also rebuked Washington over the divestment push, though more recently it appears to be softening its stance.
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, has teamed up with Employer.com CEO Jesse Tinsley and other investors in an all-cash offer for the social platform.
MrBeast joins a long list of interested TikTok buyers including billionaire Elon Musk and Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Billionaire Frank McCourt, who runs the internet advocacy group Project Liberty has also publicly expressed his interest in the opportunity,
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) -U.S. businessman Frank McCourt is open to teaming up with other buyers on a bid to take over the U.S. operations of TikTok as long as he can maintain control of the asset, he told Reuters at the Davos event on Thursday.
It’s not clear if TikTok’s owner ByteDance has seriously considered the offer, Bloomberg reported. Others floated as potential buyers include Elon Musk, Amazon, Oracle, and a syndicate headed by billionaire Frank McCourt.
MrBeast himself hasn’t publicly commented on which side he’ll choose yet. “The leading groups who are all credible [sic] bidding on Tik Tok have reached out for us to help them, I’m excited to partner/make this a reality,” he posted on Wednesday.
Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty and other investors have submitted a bid to buy TikTok from China-based ByteDance after a court-ordered divestiture or shutdown.