Investor and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary said he’s willing to pay $20 billion to buy Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok after the Supreme Court upheld a law that it either be sold or banned in the United States.
O’Leary, who is known as “Mr. Wonderful” on the popular reality television series “Shark Tank,” announced his offer during a Friday appearance on “America’s Newsroom” on Fox News.
“Right now, $20 billion’s on the table. Cash cash,” O’Leary told host Bill Hemmer during a call in to the show after the SCOTUS decision came down, explaining how the potential for punitive fines to any provider that allows access to the app after the deadline will almost certainly lead to the plug being pulled on tens of millions of American users.
NEW: Kevin O’Leary has offered $20B in cash to acquire TikTok as the ban is set to go into effect.
The announcement comes as the Supreme Court backed the law requiring TikTok to be banned or sold.
O’Leary warned that TikTok service providers could be forced to pay “over a… pic.twitter.com/PdDGwXG6I2
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 18, 2025
“As of midnight on the 19, any service provider … that could be an Apple, that could be an Oracle, it could be a video compression technology company that’s being paid as a consulting service, any of them that keep this thing alive is subject to $5,000 a day fine times 170 million,” O’Leary said. “That’s over a billion dollars a day.”
“There’s a reason that Congress put this order in front of the Supreme Court. There’s a reason they ruled in favor of it. It’s not worth taking the risk,” he told Hemmer. “And so the obvious solution is to sell it to an American syndicate as per the order.”
The platform said that unless President Joe Biden intervenes, it will “go dark” on Sunday.
Statement on Possible Shutdown
The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million…
— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) January 18, 2025
“The statements issued today by both the Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability to over 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in a statement.
“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” the statement read.
“We don’t know if an executive order can override a law from Congress. There’s a case in 1937 that was used successfully, but you don’t know. So as of right now, unless the company enters into [an] agreement to be purchased by an American syndicate, and Biden, who’s the executive right now, waves for 90 days, this thing goes dark at midnight,” O’Leary said.
“Because who’s going to take on 1,000,000,007 risks at midnight? Who’s going to do that? What counsel would advise? This is the most interesting, complicated, crazy situation I’ve ever been involved in. I’m really excited about it,” he added before making his $20 billion offer.
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