According to the previous ruling, January 19, 2025 is the deadline for TikTok to sell its US assets or cease operations. In the letter above, two senators said that the Washington government should extend the deadline for TikTok by 90 days.
Billionaire Frank McCourt is one of the parties intending to buy TikTok
PHOTO: MCCOURT GLOBAL/REUTERS
One day before they sent the letter, the US Supreme Court announced that it would consider an emergency petition from TikTok and its parent company ByteDance (headquartered in China) regarding the enforcement of the law banning the application for reasons of concern. national security. The court will hear the parties’ presentations on January 10, 2025. “Based on the uncertain future of the law and its consequences for freedom of speech, we urge you (Joe Biden) to postpone implementation for another 90 days before January 19, 2025,” Reuters quoted content of the letter. Evaluating TikTok and ByteDance’s latest effort, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts say the app has only a 30% chance of escaping the ban.
American real estate billionaire Frank McCourt, with an estimated fortune of $2.4 billion according to Bloomberg rankings, shared with Fox News about his plan to buy TikTok if parent company ByteDance loses the battle. Jurisprudence in the US Supreme Court. Mr. McCourt, Executive Chairman of McCourt Global Company (headquarters in New York state), said his team is discussing this possibility with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Also according to the page Axiosbillionaire McCourt’s team has received “an informal commitment to help raise more than 20 billion USD” for its efforts to buy TikTok in case ByteDance intends to sell. The American billionaire’s plan to acquire TikTok received support from financial services company Guggenheim Securities (headquartered in New York state and Illinois) and Kirkland & Ellis, one of the world’s largest law firms.
However, Mr. McCourt said that he has not yet been able to contact ByteDance. “We tried to approach but were unsuccessful because they (ByteDance) thought they would win a legal victory, and they have not discussed the possibility of selling TikTok,” Business Insider quoted Mr. McCourt as saying. In addition to the above plan, other investors, including former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have in the past expressed interest in acquiring the popular social networking application with about 170 million users in the US.
Besides, he admitted that up to now, he still does not know TikTok’s next direction if the above law officially takes effect. “They will probably let TikTok close,” the billionaire shared with Yahoo Finance. “I hope not. President-elect Trump doesn’t want that either,” according to Mr. McCourt. Mr. Trump met TikTok General Director Shou Chew in Mar-a-Lago (Florida) on December 16, according to CNN. The content of the meeting is unclear, but Mr. Trump previously said that he would probably change his approach to TikTok. It is still unclear what Mr. Trump’s new approach is.
