With the deadline of January 19, 2025, rapidly approaching when ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is supposed to divest its US operations or face a nation-wide ban, potential buyers for the app started to come out of the woodwork, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The development has come after the US government expressed national security concerns over TikTok’s Chinese ownership and its possible misuse of data.
The looming TikTok ban
In April 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act into law that will force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations by January 19, 2025, or face a ban. The US government considers it a national security threat because TikTok might allow the Chinese government to access user data or manipulate content, though no evidence has been given.
While never actually copping to these allegations, TikTok has built a base of nearly 170 million active users in America and has sued the law on grounds that enforcement will infringe First Amendment rights. The federal appeals court has ruled to uphold the law, and the Supreme Court seems headed in the same direction.
Elon Musk as a potential buyer
According to various reports, the Chinese officials believe Elon Musk is on the shortlist of buyers for the US business of TikTok. Musk is the owner of the social network X; because of Tesla, he has huge business exposure to China and good relations with the leadership there. In that case, his interest would be viewed as strategic-just to prevent the banning of the application in the US.
Excluding the proprietary algorithm, the analyst estimated that the US operations alone could value $40 billion to $50 billion. Besides, it would entitle Musk with the data of tens of millions of users and would serve as an excellent platform helping him connect all his projects ranging from Tesla to xAI in case he would take over TikTok. However all these reports were rubbished by TikTok. “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a company representative said.
Other interested buyers
Elon Musk is not the only name associated with acquiring TikTok; other such names include;
- Frank McCourt and Kevin O’Leary: American billionaire and founder of Project Liberty, Frank McCourt has submitted a formal proposal, together with businessman Kevin O’Leary, founding chairman of O’Leary Ventures, for the acquisition with ByteDance of the US assets of TikTok.Â
Such a proposal brought forward by McCourt and Kevin O’Leary included clearing any algorithm for spying and paying compensation to active users who allowed TikTok access to their information.
- James “MrBeast” Donaldson: Of course, there’s popular YouTuber MrBeast, who said he’d want to buy TikTok to prevent a ban, but that remains to be seen how serious he is about it.
- Bobby Kotick: Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick also reportedly has interest in buying its US operations and reportedly spoke about the deal with ByteDance’s founder Zhang Yiming.
- Doug McMillon: The chief executive of Walmart once expressed his desire to purchase TikTok. In 2020, this executive also joined the meeting. He also called the owner of ByteDance to offer him a few visitors in 2023.
- Microsoft: The company ever tried to purchase TikTok and could again, yet the deal could face specific regulatory oversight.
The implications of the ban
If ByteDance doesn’t divest TikTok’s US operations by the deadline, the app should be removed from US app stores-affecting millions of users and content creators. Though access might remain for already existing users, the app would deteriorate with time without downloads and updates. The ban also redirects ad dollars to other platforms such as Meta and Google; those companies could retain a majority of dislocated ad dollars, some analysts predict.
