Kevin O’Leary wants to buy TikTok — what he’d change the first day

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The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would force China’s Bytedance to sell TikTok or face a national ban, leaving TikTok’s fate in the air. Kevin O’Leary, known for his role on Shark Tank, is offering to buy the social media company. O’Leary joined TheStreet to discuss why he’s the best suitor.

Full Video Transcript Below:

SARA SILVERSTEIN: You’ve offered to buy TikTok if the Chinese investor has to divest. Is that something that you’re serious about?

KEVIN O’LEARY: I am. I am. TikTok has 170 million users. That’s one of the largest networks on Earth. 5 million of them are small businesses. They spend about $9 billion a year in advertising to acquire customers and sell goods and services. That’s what I do. I support small business in America. And I also know from the context of who the bidders are going to be. No way. It’s Meta, no way. It’s Google. Regulators are never going to allow that. The chances that Microsoft buys it, I think are very, very low. It’s probably going to be an independent like me that can aggregate a syndicate of investors with one, no one investor, more than 10%. There’s only a dozen pools of capital that could fund this, but people think it’s going to be a $100 billion. I don’t think so, because I don’t think the Chinese are going to sell the algorithm.

So really what you’re talking about are two stacks of value. The brand TikTok, which is a global brand, it’s a huge brand stateside that’s got value, 170 million users, that’s got value. But without the algorithm, which I doubt Bytedance is going to sell because the Chinese government won’t allow the transfer of that technology. You don’t have any history, you have no preferences. You don’t know what these people bought in the past. You know nothing about them. So I think it’s more like in the $40 billion range, this is after it passes the Senate. So various groups are forming. I have one huge advantage that others don’t have. Of that 170 million people, my bet is 80%, 85% know who I am and know me as the small business guy from Shark Tank. They’re all inspired by Shark Tank. This, Shark Tank is the American dream. So I think Shark Tank for this position. But I mean, I’d like to compete. Bring it on. Let’s go.

SARA SILVERSTEIN: And what would you do day one if you were in that position?

KEVIN O’LEARY: Well, my objective would be to form a syndicate with also a group ready to rewrite the entire algorithm. So you as a user would not see any change the day I take it over and bring a great management team from top down. We obviously my objective is very simple. I have to turn this thing from TikTok, China into TikTok, USA. Not an easy task, but if anybody is up to do it, it’s got to be me.