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The image of the photo shows the TikTok logo on the mobile phone screen.
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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 ban on the social media platform.
As part of a wave of executive orders since taking office on Monday, Trump The implementation of a law has been delayed for 75 days that would effectively see TikTok banned, allowing its administration to “determine appropriate action.”
Trump promised in a move social media post On Sunday, the platform also marketed a deal that would see it remain active in the US under a 50% American-owned joint venture.
“That 50/50 deal, I’d love to work with Trump, so would all the other potential buyers… But the problem with some of these ideas is that they don’t line up with the Supreme Court ruling,” the investor said. best known for his role on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”
O’Leary himself announced, “The People’s Offer for TikTok,The effort, led by Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt, offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash to buy TikTok. Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
Speaking to CNBC, he said the proposed deal did not include ByteDance’s TikTok algorithm, which has been a major point of scrutiny for US lawmakers, and added that his team had an alternative algorithm.
ByteDance did not announce a deal before Sunday’s deadline to sell off TikTok after the Supreme Court ruling. hold on has Americans Protecting Foreign Adversaries Controlled Applications Actor PAFACA, Applies to TikTok.
McCourt confirmed to CNBC that the Project Liberty team “remains ready to work collaboratively with the Trump Administration, ByteDance and a consortium of American partners to finalize this critical agreement.”
“Project Liberty has a proven technology stack already in use and provides a clear path to address Congress’s national security concerns while operating TikTok,” he added.
Legal barriers
Companies involved with TikTok have had mixed reactions to Trump’s executive order. Service providers like Oracle and Akamai have reluctantly kept TikTok online, while Apple and Google have yet to restore ByteDance-owned apps to their stores.
According to O’Leary, while Trump’s extension of the ban has protected the likes of Oracle and Akamai, it is unclear whether ByteDance’s divestment deadline will be extended.
“What we need isn’t really a 75-day extension. What we need is to go back and open up the petition to congress and offer these new options because they’re not planned right now,” he said.
“I would like to make a deal, if the law requires it, but I don’t have the luxury of breaking the mandate of Congress,” he added.
Legal experts who spoke to CNBC agreed that the legal status of TikTok and Trump’s executive order remains uncertain and that efforts to reach a deal with TikTok could face challenges.
“The order does not appear to comply with the statute. Congress carefully inserted certain dates and procedures into the law, which SCOTUS found to be constitutional,” said University of Richmond Law Professor Carl Tobias.
“That way, a federal court could find that the Order violates the law and strike it down,” he said, adding that such action could take a long time if the government appealed to SCOTUS.
Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, acknowledged that the executive order was inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s decision, adding that it said nothing about progress toward a qualified divestment.
Given that TikTok violators could face billions in fines, it’s not entirely prudent for parties to take Trump’s assurances over the law and the SCOTUS ruling, Kreps said.
“They are definitely playing with the law and putting a lot of faith in the executive branch,” he added.
Does China soften its stance?
O’Leary told CNBC that TikTok It can fetch 20-30 billion dollars on the market in March of last year, a large discount, given any sale, would likely be rejected by the platform’s algorithms.
Instead, the value of a potential deal was the opportunity to acquire TikTok and its strong domestic brand More than 100 million usershe said
However, as talk of a TikTok sale intensified, Beijing was seen as such a major obstacle BytdeDance to divest.
However, Beijing recently expressed openness to a deal that would see US companies gain ownership of the platform.
“Regarding actions such as the operation and acquisition of companies, we believe that companies should decide independently according to market principles,” a Beijing spokesman said Monday when asked about President Donald Trump’s proposal.
According to O’Leary, the potential sale of ByteDance is expected to be negotiated between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“With TikTok, I have the right to sell or close, and we will make that decision and we may have to get approval from China,” Trump told reporters after his inauguration.
While signing the executive order, the president reportedly suggested Tariffs on China If Beijing had not approved a deal with US TikTok. In state Monday, he said he would consider the possibility Tesla CEO Elon Musk or the president of Oracle Larry Ellison Buy TikTok
Meanwhile, O’Leary told CNBC that he was still in Washington working with US lawmakers on a potential TikTok deal.
