By Sherry Qin
Billionaire Frank McCourt is organizing a bid to acquire the U.S. business of video-sharing platform TikTok, weeks after the passage of a law that would ban the company unless it separates itself from its Chinese owner.
McCourt, a real-estate mogul and former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said Wednesday that Project Liberty, an initiative he founded, is creating a consortium to buy the platform owned by China's ByteDance.
Project Liberty will work with Guggenheim Securities, the investment-banking and capital-markets business of Guggenheim Partners, law firm Kirkland & Ellis and others in the bid, according to a statement.
The bid provides an opportunity to "return control and value back into the hands of individuals and provide Americans with a meaningful voice, choice, and stake in the future of the web," the statement said.
McCourt's bid comes after former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in March said he was putting together a consortium to try to buy TikTok.
President Biden signed legislation last month that could force ByteDance to sell its popular platform or stop operating in the U.S. due to national-security and data-privacy concerns. TikTok subsequently filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.
The short-video app, which has 170 million users in the U.S., has faced scrutiny over the way its algorithm works to select content for users, both on sensitive issues such as teen depression and on global debates such as the Israel-Hamas war.
The Wall Street Journal has previously reported that Beijing has signaled that it won't allow the forced sale of TikTok, limiting options for the app's owners even as buyers begin lining up to bid for its U.S. operations. The value of TikTok's U.S. business could range from $20 billion to $100 billion, the Journal has reported.
Write to Sherry Qin at sherry.qin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-15-24 0647ET
