Kevin O’Leary said he would “love to do a TikTok deal.”
The photo shows the TikTok logo on a 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 laws, he told CNBC as President Donald Trump extends a deadline for a ban on the social media platform.
As part of a wave of executive orders on Monday, Trump the implementation of the law was delayed for 75 days This would effectively ban TikTok in the US and give it “an opportunity to determine an appropriate course of action”.
Trump promised to take this step social media post On Sunday, it also struck a deal that would see the platform remain active under a joint venture with 50% American ownership.
“This 50/50 deal, I would like to work with Trump, and so would any other potential buyer … But the problem with some of these ideas is that they don’t fit with the Supreme Court,” O’Leary said. , best known for her role on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”
The investor announced that he “People’s suggestion for TikTok,An effort led by Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt offered ByteDance $20 billion to buy TikTok. Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
Speaking to CNBC, he said the proposed deal does not include ByteDance’s TikTok algorithm, a key point of inquiry by US lawmakers, and said his group has an alternative algorithm.
ByteDance had not announced any deal until Sunday to divest from TikTok after the Supreme Court ruling. defended the The Protecting Americans from Foreign Enemy Control Actor PAFACA, It belongs to TikTok.
McCourt confirmed to CNBC that the Project Liberty team is “ready to work with the Trump Administration, ByteDance and a consortium of American partners to finalize this critical deal.”
“Project Liberty has a proven technology stack already in use and offers a clear path to address Congress’s national security concerns while keeping TikTok running,” he said.
Legal barriers
TikTok-related firms have had mixed reactions to Trump’s order. Service providers such as Oracle and Akamai have reluctantly kept TikTok online, while Apple and Google have not restored ByteDance-owned apps to their stores.
While Trump’s extension of the ban would provide protection to companies such as Oracle and Akamai, it is unclear whether ByteDance’s withdrawal period will be extended, O’Leary said.
“What we need is not really a 75-day extension. What we need is to go back and ask Congress to open the order and provide these new options because they are not currently in place,” he said.
“I would love to make a deal if the law would allow it, but I don’t have the luxury of breaking congressional rules,” he said.
Legal experts who spoke to CNBC agreed that TikTok’s legal status and Trump’s order remain unclear, and that any attempt to strike a TikTok deal could face challenges.
“The order is inconsistent with the statute,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. “Congress carefully built into the law certain dates and procedures that SCOTUS found constitutional.”
“So a federal court could find that the Ordinance violates the law and invalidate it,” he said, adding that such an action could take a long time if the government were to appeal to SCOTUS.
Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Technology Policy Institute, agreed that the executive order was inconsistent with the Supreme Court decision, adding that it said nothing about progress toward competent foreclosure.
Given that TikTok violators could face billions in fines, it’s not entirely prudent for parties to take Trump’s assurances about the law and the SCOTUS ruling, Kreps said.
“They certainly gamble with the law and have enough faith in the executive branch,” he said.
Is China softening its position?
O’Leary told CNBC on TikTok It can earn 20-30 billion dollars A huge discount on the market last March, given that any sale would exclude the platform’s algorithms.
Instead, the value of the potential deal was the opportunity to acquire TikTok and its strong domestic brand More than 100 million usershe said.
Still, as talk of a TikTok sale grew, Beijing seemed to is the main obstacle Opting out of BytdeDance.
However, China has recently indicated that it is open to a deal that would see US companies gain ownership of the platform.
“When it comes to actions such as the operation and acquisition of enterprises, we believe they should be decided independently by companies in accordance with market principles,” a Beijing spokesman told reporters on Monday when asked about President Donald Trump’s proposal.
According to O’Leary, any potential sale of ByteDance is still expected to be negotiated between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump told reporters after the inauguration: “TikTok and I have the right to either sell it or shut it down, and we will make that decision, and we may have to get approval from China.”
According to information, the president suggested that he can do it while signing the decree Imposing tariffs on China If Beijing fails to approve the US deal with TikTok. In state Monday, he said he would consider the possibility Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison Buy TikTok.
Meanwhile, O’Leary told CNBC that he is in Washington, D.C., still working with U.S. lawmakers on a potential TikTok deal.
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