Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday opened up the possibility of buying TikTok after House members overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that would force China-based parent company ByteDance to sell. The company announced that it is forming an investor team.
Secretary Mnuchin supports the Protecting Americans from Regulatory Applications by Foreign Enemies Act, which would give ByteDance six months to sell its stock or face a total ban in the United States. expressed. As The Post reported, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is under intense pressure to bring the matter to a swift vote.
“I think the bill should pass, and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin said at a Thursday briefing. Appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “I understand technology. This is a great business. I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”
Mnuchin was a member of former President Donald Trump’s Cabinet when he issued an executive order requiring ByteDance to sell its stake in TikTok or be banned. President Biden later suspended that order.
Asked if he had already partnered with investors, Mnuchin said “we’re working on it” and “talked to a lot of people,” but he declined to name them.
“This should be owned by an American company,” Mnuchin added. “There’s no way China would let an American company own something like this in China.”
TikTok said it would resist any forced sale of its company and vowed to wage a legal battle to block the bill if it becomes law. Even if parent company ByteDance ultimately relents and decides to sell, potential buyers would face a hefty price tag.
TikTok’s U.S. operations could be worth between $40 billion and $50 billion, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence last year.
Mnuchin downplayed concerns that the Chinese government would intervene to block the sale, insisting that the app would need to be “rebuilt in the United States” after the acquisition.
“I think China will have no problem selling it unless there is technology transfer along the way.”
The former Treasury secretary also pushed back against arguments that the bill’s 180-day deadline for mandatory sales was too short, saying, “You can do a lot in six months.”
Mnuchin joins a short list of known suitors for TikTok. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that former Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick approached ByteaDance about a possible sale.
As reported by the Post, experts believe large companies such as Meta, Google and Microsoft are logical bidders, in part because the companies are interested in the deal. It is one of the few companies with the resources to provide funding. But if a Big Tech company were to buy TikTok, it would certainly face opposition from antitrust regulators.
President Trump surprised his own party by saying he now opposes banning TikTok, citing concerns that Facebook would become too powerful.
“I don’t think this should be controlled by the big tech companies in the United States,” Mnuchin added. “Users love it. It shouldn’t be shut down.”
