There may be some hope after all as ‘Shark Tank‘ host Kevin O’Leary, 70, says he is near a deal to buy TikTok, joining billionaire Frank McCourt in a bid to save the social media platform from being banned in the U.S.
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On Monday (January 6), Kevin O’Leary — a Canadian politician; chairman of O’Leary Ventures, a capital investment platform; and chairman of Beanstox, an investment service — announced that he is joining billionaire Frank McCourt in a plan to save TikTok from being banned in America. Frank McCourt is the former owner of the LA Dodgers and executive chairman of McCourt Global.
Frank McCourt is also the creator of a non-profit called Project Liberty, whose X account (Twitter) states, “Project Liberty is leading a movement of people who want to take back control of their lives in the digital age.” In December 2024, McCourt said he and several associates formed a group, called “People’s Bid for TikTok,” to purchase the platform and keep it from being banned in the U.S. At the time, McCourt said he received verbal commitments totaling up to $20 billion.
As we’ve previously shared, last Spring, President Joe Biden signed legislation into law requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell their popular platform before January 19, 2025. If ByteDance fails to find another owner, based in America, TikTok will be banned in the U.S. and no longer be available to download from app stores and unavailable to access on internet browsers.
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Kevin O’Leary, known as “Mr. Wonderful” on the ABC reality television series ‘Shark Tank,’ made his announcement about wanting to save TikTok from a U.S. ban on the Fox News show ‘The Story with Martha MacCallum.’ Although he said that he was near a deal to buy the platform, he also said that President-elect Donald Trump would need to support the deal for it to fully happen.
Initially, Trump advocated for the platform to be banned, however, his stance appears to lean the other after urging the Supreme Court to delay the ban back in December. O’Leary told Fox News, “Trump will be who we have to work with to close the deal in the months ahead. So, I wanted to let him know, as well as others in his cabinet, that we’re doing this, and we’re going to need their help.”
O’Leary also took to his account on X (formerly Twitter) and shared a press release about his bid for TikTok. He wrote, “I’m excited to share that I’m partnering with Frank McCourt and the visionary team at @pro_jectliberty to lead The People’s Bid for TikTok!”
RELATED: Donald Trump Urges Supreme Court To Delay TikTok Ban So He Can ‘Negotiate A Resolution To Save The Platform’
He continued, “This isn’t just about buying TikTok’s U.S. assets. It’s about something much bigger: protecting the privacy of 170 million American users. It’s about empowering creators and small businesses. And it’s about building a platform that prioritizes PEOPLE over algorithms. TikTok has immense potential, not just as a tool for creators but as a driver of meaningful economic and social impact. Together, we’re working to create an American-owned platform that is secure, innovative, and puts YOU in control of your data and digital relationships.”
O’Leary also spoke with News Nation about wanting to save TikTok from being banned in the U.S. While sharing a clip from his interview on X, he wrote, “I need TikTok because I’m an advocate for entrepreneurship which is bipartisan in America. My people are companies between one and 500 employees which represents 62% of job creation in America.”
He added, “So. I don’t want to turn it off. I want to abide by what Congress said on a bipartisan basis, take out the Chinese spyware. Everybody knows it’s spyware. What Frank McCourt and I wanted to eliminate is the misconception that we can’t sell it because no one will buy it without the algorithm. NOT true. We’ll buy it without the algorithm. We don’t need them. We’ll do it ourselves and make TikTok wonderful again.”
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