By Daysia Tolentino —
NBC News
The names of possible interested parties in buying TikTok begin to circulate after the House of Representatives approved a bill on Wednesday that could ban the application in the United States, unless the Chinese company that owns it agrees to sell it.
The Protecting Americans from Apps Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act passed by 352 votes in favor and 65 against.
Lawmakers expressed concern that the Chinese government is using TikTok to misinform and manipulate the social network's
170 million American users
.
If the Senate passes the bill and President Joe Biden signs it, TikTok's China-based parent company ByteDance would have to sell the app to a U.S. company within six months.
Otherwise, TikTok could be banned in the United States.
Steve Mnuchin, Bobby Kotick, and Kevin-O'Leary, some of the Americans interested in buying TikTok from the Chinese company ByteDance.
Getty;
AP
Although some critics have said the timeline is unrealistic, several investors have expressed interest in purchasing the app.
Here are the potential buyers who have revealed their intentions so far, and also those companies that have tried to buy TikTok before.
Steven Mnuchin, former Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin, an investment banker who served as Treasury secretary under President Donald Trump, said he was gathering a group of investors to try to buy TikTok, although he did not specify names.
“I think the legislation should be approved and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin said Thursday during an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box.
“This has to be controlled by American companies.”
Mnuchin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rumble
Rumble, an online video platform popular with conservatives, shared a statement from its CEO, Chris Pavlovski, on Tuesday on social network X, addressing his TikTok counterpart, Shou Zi Chew.
Pavlovski proposed to Zi Chew “join a consortium with other parties seeking to acquire and operate TikTok within the United States.”
It is unclear which “other parties” would be involved in an acquisition.
When asked for comment on a potential TikTok acquisition, a Rumble spokesperson referred NBC News to Pavlovski's statements on X.
Rumble has high-profile investors such as Peter Thiel and Ohio Republican Senator JD Vance.
Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard
Bobby Kotick left his position at Activision Blizzard in December.
Now he is reportedly looking for partners to join him in a potential TikTok acquisition, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The publication claims that Kotick has expressed interest in purchasing the social network from ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
NBC News has not independently verified Kotick's interest in TikTok.
Kotick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kevin O'Leary
Kevin O'Leary, an investor and entrepreneur on the television show Shark Tank, indicated in an interview with Fox News that TikTok “will not be banned” because he is going to “buy it.”
O'Leary posted the interview on his own TikTok account.
He also added that Meta and Google will not buy the app, citing regulatory concerns.
“A consortium will be formed.
I would like to participate, obviously,” he added.
O'Leary said he believes Chinese investors should take 20% of the new company and that it should have an American CEO and board of directors, as well as employees in the United States.
The data of Americans on TikTok has been stored since 2022 in the cloud infrastructure of Oracle, based in Austin, Texas.
O'Leary indicated that TikTok
"is worth billions"
and defined it as "one of the most successful advertising platforms in social media today."
Representatives for O'Leary did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other interested buyers
During past attempts by the US government to force a sale of TikTok, other companies were reported to be in talks with ByteDance to acquire the app.
When Trump threatened to ban the app in 2020, Microsoft said it was “committed to acquiring TikTok, subject to a full security review and with appropriate financial benefits to the United States, including the Treasury Department,” NBC News reported at the time. .
The report also stated that Microsoft would buy the social network's operations in Canada, Australia and New Zealand as part of the deal.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ultimately, the deal fell through, as Oracle was tapped to potentially oversee TikTok's US operations and user data.
CNBC reported at the time that Oracle would have operational control of the app in the United States, while ByteDance would retain majority ownership of TikTok.
Walmart then joined Oracle in offering to invest in TikTok.
But the transaction was put on hold when Joe Biden's Administration took office.
Neither Oracle nor Walmart immediately responded to a request for comment.