Kevin O’Leary wants to buy TikTok and he spent the weekend at Mar-a-Lago trying to convince President-elect Donald Trump he’s the right guy to run the controversial short video app.
Several news reports said O’Leary — aka Mr. Wonderful of the “Shark Tank” franchise — was hanging at The Donald’s Palm Beach resort to discuss Trump’s musings about buying parts of the Western Hemisphere, including his native Canada.
But On The Money has learned the “51st state” wasn’t high on the agenda, TikTok was. O’Leary, a serial entrepreneur, wants to add the app to his holdings.
Not an easy lift even the future of the app operating in the US is in jeopardy.
TikTok is popular particularly with the younger set, but a bipartisan-supported ban is set to go into effect if the Chinese company ByteDance, which answers to the Chinese Communist Party, doesn’t divest the app in the US by Sunday.
The fear is that the CCP is using the app for spy craft purposes.
One of the few things Republicans agreed with President Joe Biden about even as his wonky presidency comes to an end was to ban TikTok and remove the threat by making it impossible to download it from US app stores.
The Chinese don’t want to sell the all-important algorithm that allows you to post all those crazy dance videos and have vowed to shut it down.
But O’Leary tells On The Money he’s teaming up with billionaire Frank McCourt and has enough money — say $20 billion plus — to both build out their own app and buy the name and business from the Chinese — if they are sellers.
That’s where Trump comes in. Trump also wanted to ban TikTok back during his first term but he is now a convert since he believes he was able to use the app to gain voters, particularly among young people.
He could use his sway with Chinese President Xi Jinping to make a deal that gets it out of Chinese hands at a price that makes everyone happy.
On Wednesday, reports surfaced that Trump was considering issuing an executive order as soon as he gets into the White House on Monday that would delay the ban by a few months.
O’Leary told On The Money that Trump simply wants the business in US hands (presumably his Canadian citizenship is close enough).
But Trump, he said, made no commitment, specifically to him.
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