“But it won’t be my decision or Frank McCourt’s decision. The two of us have put our syndicate out there. We’ve made the offer. Every single American shareholder has our offer. They know it. And this is really up for ByteDance to decide.”
O’Leary went on to explain how China wants to be considered a “destination” for capital, explaining that every country needs it to grow their economy, even those in adversarial positions with the U.S. like China.
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“The third thing I think everybody’s going to find attractive, including Trump, is we’re going to open it so that it’s inter-operative. So if you’re posting on Truth Social or on X, click here to populate TikTok. Everybody would want to do that. And we would ask others, like Instagram and Meta, let’s do the same thing. Let’s share two ways,” he added.
O’Leary explained how a Supreme Court decision to uphold the ban would be “good news” for their bid.
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“If they do share it, and they 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 work, and then we’re going to take it all around the world.”
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“What that means is that the company goes into a binary decision as to whether to let it be shut down midnight on the 19th or engage with a buyer,” he told “America Reports” Friday on Fox News. “Now, you may be aware that we have put an offer – I think we’re the only syndicate formed that gave a viable offer last night – to ByteDance, and they may want to start considering it because there’s $30 to $40 billion worth of American shareholder’s value tied up there. And if the Supreme leader Chinese President Xi Jinping wishes to, we can just shut it off as they did in India and that capital gets erased. And of course, that’s not good for future capital raising.”
The “Shark Tank” star is teaming up with Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt to purchase the platform’s US assets from its parent company, ByteDance, and “rebuild the platform in a way that prioritizes the privacy of its 170 million American users.”
The high court heard oral arguments on Friday in a fast-tracked case ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House. A final decision is expected before Inauguration Day.
“We’ll make it very free speech. We’ll make it way better and we’ll make sure we abide by the order of the courts. This is the right path,” he said.
“This thing will become the world’s largest television network in a matter of two years,” O’Leary said about TikTok’s growth potential.
Besides giving users ownership of their data and stripping out the “Chinese spyware”, the investor emphasized TikTok has the potential to grow from its current 170 million users to “past 200 million” by regaining user trust.
O’Leary and McCourt’s bid will be impacted by the Supreme Court’s much anticipated ruling on the law to ban the platform unless it is divested and then ByteDance’s willingness to do so if their hand is forced before the deadline.
TikTok is facing a potential ban due to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, a law signed by President Biden that passed in Congress last April with bipartisan approval.
