Trump Open to Musk or Ellison Buying TikTok in Joint Venture With US
President Donald Trump said he would be open to billionaire supporter Elon Musk or Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison purchasing social video app TikTok as part of a joint venture with the US government.
“I have the right to make a deal,” Trump said at an event alongside Ellison at the White House on Tuesday. “So what I’m thinking about saying to somebody is buy it and give half to the United States of America, half, and we’ll give you the permit, and they’ll have a great partner.”
While TikTok temporarily went offline over the weekend, Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 – his first day in office – to extend the deadline for a sale by 75 days. While it’s not clear that Trump has the authority to extend the deadline, it may not ultimately matter.
ByteDance Ltd. has publicly refused to sell TikTok, though prospective buyers hope the Supreme Court’s ruling in support of a national security law forcing the company to either sell or shutter the service in the US, along with the temporary shutdown, could push it to reconsider.
“You have an asset that has no value or has a trillion-dollar value,” Trump said. “It all depends on whether or not the United States gives the permit.”
China’s foreign and commerce ministries didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether Beijing would allow the American government to own part of TikTok. Its Foreign Ministry on Monday said that it’s up to individual companies to make decisions about their operations and acquisitions, and the hope was that “the US can listen to rational voices and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment.”
While Beijing sees space for negotiating who buys a stake in the video-sharing app, it’s “unlikely” to accept a deal driven by politics, according to Zhu Feng, executive dean of Nanjing University’s School of International Studies. “The pursuits of US interests should be based on rules, not on the strength of the US government,” he added.
Potential bidders are already lining up. A group of American investors assembled by tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley that included MrBeast, the internet’s most-followed and highest-earning content creator, announced a bid earlier Tuesday.
Billionaire Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary made a formal offer to buy TikTok earlier this month. O’Leary has already met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the bid, and McCourt has made clear he’d be happy to buy TikTok without the service’s coveted content algorithm, which ByteDance and China’s government have said is not for sale.
“We’re not conflicted in any way and we have the cash,” O’Leary told Bloomberg News in an interview. His bid of $20 billion is derived from a rough calculation based on TikTok’s US operations as a share of ByteDance’s overall value, he said. Dispensing with the algorithm also makes it a much cleaner proposition, satisfying people concerned about Chinese “spyware” embedded within, he added.
Unlike Musk, who may face antitrust concerns as he already owns X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, O’Leary’s group has no complications that could slow or prevent a deal. “I think we could close it in 90 days,” the Shark Tank star said.
Amazon.com Inc. and Oracle, both of which already do business with TikTok, have also been floated as possible suitors. After assurances from Trump that he wouldn’t enforce the law, Oracle notably helped restore TikTok’s app on Sunday after a roughly 14-hour US shutdown even though it could face fines for doing so.
Larry Ellison, second left, with SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and OpenAI’s Sam Altman at the White House.Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg
Ellison was at the White House on Tuesday to announce a new joint artificial intelligence venture alongside SoftBank Group Corp. and OpenAI.
Read more: Trump Unveils AI Investment Plan with OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle
At the end of his remarks, Trump suggested he might download TikTok on his phone.
“I think I might put it there. I think I’ll get it right now. By the way, again we won the young vote. I think I won it through TikTok, so I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” he said.
