Kevin O'Leary offers to buy TikTok and turn it into a 'new American company' if proposed ban advances
As the clock ticks closer to lawmakers voting on whether to take legislative action against China-owned app TikTok, one of America’s most influential entrepreneurs has offered to purchase the platform and host it on U.S. soil.
"If this order goes through, it's got to be sold. I'm going to put up my hand and say I'll buy it, and I'll tell you why," O’Leary Ventures Chairman and "Shark Tank" star Kevin O’Leary said on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning.
"What I'm proposing is purchasing these assets into a new American company. I'll guarantee the servers are on American soil. I'll guarantee you will close the Chinese back doors in the code. I'll guarantee it becomes safe for the users, the parents, small business and large business," he continued. "It'll be an American company."
Prospective legislation that could make TikTok unavailable in the U.S. is reportedly headed to a House of Representatives vote on Wednesday, after advancing out of a bipartisan committee with a unanimous 50-0 vote.
The bill would require TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance to fully divest all of its applications within 180 days or risk a ban on those apps. It would also establish a process for the executive branch to ban applications in the future if they are deemed a security risk.
Since receiving strong bipartisan support, TikTok users received a special message from the app's team urging them to contact local lawmakers and "speak up now – before your government strips 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression."
O’Leary claimed he wants to work with both Republicans and Democrats who vote for the bill to oversee TikTok’s transition into his ownership over the next 18 months.
"I would ask permission to leave 20, 30% with the Chinese people, because they'll have a non-control, passive position. They will not control the board. They will have no say in how we operate the company," he said, "and therefore will resolve this issue around free speech. Nobody wants to lose the app."
O'Leary also expressed approval of the congressional board potentially declining any profit share with parent company ByteDance.
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"The point is, there's many co-operative businesses in China owned by Chinese, and any Chinese company [is] the CCP, everybody knows that. So the Chinese government has lots of joint ventures with American companies that manufacture over there. Let's throw them a bone," the millionaire entrepreneur said.
"I'd have to put together a syndicate of American and sovereign wealth money approved by this committee of the House," he added. "I spent a lot of time on the Hill. I think I have a lot of respect on both sides because I support small business. I have no agenda here other than to make this platform safe for Americans to use."
FOX Business’ Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.