Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed interest in buying TikTok on Thursday. The politician, who served as secretary of the treasury during the Trump administration, gave an interview just one day after the House of Representatives approved the bill banning the platform.
As can be read in the bill, there is only one possibility of preventing the ban, that of ByteDance selling the company to another entity without ties to China. That is precisely what Mnunchin could offer, as he would create an investment group to acquire the social network. He spoke about the initiative on the CNBC program "Squawk Box": "I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold. It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok," said the former secretary of the treasury.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where its chances of passing seem uncertain, despite President Joe Biden's commitment to sign the bill if it reaches the Oval Office. However, Mnunchin assured that even if the draft was approved, he seriously doubts that ByteDance would sell: "This should be owned by U.S. businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China," Mnunchin said.
Bobby Kotick also interested in buying TikTok
Mnunchin is not the only American interested in taking ownership of TikTok. The former CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, also stated that he would consider buying the platform if the chance arose.
As The Wall Street Journal reported, the executive, who left Activision Blizzard a year ago, contacted the founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, to make an offer. However, acquiring the platform would not be cheap and would require various partners. The former CEO of Activision contacted several people to support him in the purchase, including Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, reports WSJ.
