Kevin O’Leary is seen in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on May 28, 2024.
James Devaney | Gc Images | Getty Images
Canadian investor Kevin O’Leary is still interested in a TikTok deal, but it’s not possible under current law, he told CNBC, as President Donald Trump extended the deadline for a ban on the social media platform.
As part of a wave of executive orders on Monday, Trump delayed by 75 days the imposition of a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the U.S., allowing for “an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action.”
Trump had promised the move in a social media post on Sunday, also floating a deal that would see the platform, owned by China-based tech giant ByteDance, stay active under a joint venture with a 50% American stake.
“That 50/50 deal, I would love to work with Trump on, so would every other potential buyer … But the problem with some of these ideas is they are inconsistent with the ruling of the Supreme Court,” said O’Leary, widely known from his role in ABC’s “Shark Tank.”
The investor announced that he, along with “The People’s Bid for TikTok,” an effort led by Project Liberty Founder Frank McCourt, had offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash to buy the platform in an appearance on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
Speaking to CNBC, he said the proposed deal did not include ByteDance’s TikTok algorithm, which has been a key point of scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers, adding that his group had its own alternative.
In order for TikTok to stay online under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, or PAFACA, signed last year, ByteDance needed to divest it by a Sunday deadline or see the ban come into effect.
TikTok temporarily went dark in the U.S. after the Supreme Court upheld PAFACA on Friday, but resumed service after Trump provided it with assurances.
McCourt confirmed to CNBC that the Project Liberty team remained “ready to work collaboratively with the Trump Administration, ByteDance, and a consortium of American partners” to finalize a deal and keep TikTok online.
“Project Liberty has a proven tech stack that is already in use and offers a clear path to address the national security concerns of Congress while keeping TikTok operational,” he added.
could fetch $20-$30 billion on the market, a huge discount, given any sale would likely exclude the platform’s algorithms.
Instead, the value in a potential deal was the opportunity to gain the strong domestic brand of TikTok and its over 100 million users, he said.
Around the time conversations about a TikTok sale ramped up, the Chinese government was seen as a major barrier to a ByteDance divestment.
Beijing, however, recently signaled openness to a deal that would see U.S. companies gain ownership of the platform.
“When it comes to actions such as the operation and acquisition of businesses, we believe they should be independently decided by companies in accordance with market principles,” a Beijing spokesperson told reporters Monday when asked about President Donald Trump’s TikTok proposal.
According to O’Leary, any potential sale of ByteDance is still expected to be negotiated between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“With TikTok, I have the right to either sell it or close it, and we’ll make that determination and we may have to get an approval from China too,” Trump told reporters following his inauguration.
While signing the executive order, the President reportedly suggested that he could impose tariffs on China if Beijing failed to approve a U.S. deal with TikTok. On Monday stateside, he also said he would consider the likelihood of Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison buying the platform.
Meanwhile, O’Leary told CNBC that he was in Washington still working on a potential TikTok deal with U.S. lawmakers.