MrBeast, one of the most successful internet creators, may join a bid by real estate mogul and Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt to buy TikTok's U.S. arm, McCourt told Axios' Sara Fischer in Davos on Wednesday.
The countdown is on again for a US-based buyer to take on TikTok, as it faces a ban. Euronews Next takes a look at the contenders to take over the app. View on euronews
Other potential buyers include the philanthropist Frank Mccourt ’s Project Liberty, which is raising capital to make a bid for TikTok in order to “rearchitect the platform” and protect user data. McCourt is a billionaire who previously owned the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. The project is supported by the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.
MrBeast himself hasn’t publicly commented on which side he’ll choose yet. “The leading groups who are all credible [sic] bidding on Tik Tok have reached out for us to help them, I’m excited to partner/make this a reality,” he posted on Wednesday.
Frank McCourt revealed plans to include Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, in his $20 billion bid to acquire TikTok’s U.S. arm.
It’s not clear if TikTok’s owner ByteDance has seriously considered the offer, Bloomberg reported. Others floated as potential buyers include Elon Musk, Amazon, Oracle, and a syndicate headed by billionaire Frank McCourt.
The platform is in need of saving in the United States, where approximately 170 million people have TikTok accounts. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law that will ban the platform on Jan. 19 unless TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance divests its U.S. operations.
The billionaire declined to share details on his sources of financing, but said private equity firms and family offices have reached out.
Content creator Jimmy Donaldson, known on the Internet as MrBeast, has made it clear he is interested in buying TikTok. Donaldson has the most subscribers of any user on YouTube— over 340 million—and boasts over 113 million TikTok followers.
Jimmy Donaldson - aka MrBeast - was jubilant as he told his tens of millions of TikTok followers about his bid to buy the platform. "I might become you guys' new CEO! I'm super excited!" Donaldson said from a private jet. He then proceeded to promise $10,000 to five random new followers.
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, has teamed up with Employer.com CEO Jesse Tinsley and other investors in an all-cash offer for the social platform.
U.S. businessman Frank McCourt is open to teaming up with other buyers on a bid to take over the U.S. operations of TikTok as long as he can maintain control of the asset, he told Reuters at the Davos event on Thursday.