Kevin O’Leary, famous for his role as “Mr Wonderful” in the US series Shark Tank, has revealed plans to join billionaire Frank McCourt’s consortium in a bid to take over TikTok.
The move comes amid growing pressure on the Chinese video platform, which could be banned in the United States if parent company ByteDance fails to divest the app by January 19.
Last spring, President Joe Biden signed into law measures forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations by this month’s deadline or face a ban — by removing the app from U.S. app stores and disabling access through web browsers. TikTok has challenged the legislation, arguing it represents censorship and violates U.S. First Amendment rights. However, proponents of the ban argue that the platform poses a potential national security threat by sharing data with Chinese authorities.
McCourt, founder of Project Liberty and executive chairman of McCourt Global, announced in December that he was assembling a group of backers called the “People’s Bid for TikTok.” The primary goal of Project Liberty is to return control of users’ data to the users themselves. According to McCourt, verbal commitments of up to $20 billion have already been made for the acquisition.
O’Leary told Fox News on Monday that he and McCourt would have to work with newly elected President Donald Trump to make a deal, especially since Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay the ban so he can try to save the platform. The Supreme Court will review the ban on Friday, and Trump will be sworn in the day after the deadline.
“This isn’t just about buying TikTok’s US assets,” O’Leary said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter). “It’s about something much bigger: protecting the privacy of 170 million American users. It’s about empowering makers and small businesses. And it’s about building a platform that prioritizes people over algorithms.”
Neither Project Liberty nor Kevin O’Leary responded to requests for comment on Tuesday.