For the past few weeks, there has been tension between the United States and TikTok. The discussion revolves around whether the popular social media platform will be banned in the country. However, if the platform is sold to a U.S. company, it could avoid this fate. It has now come to light that a prominent businessperson is interested in acquiring TikTok.
Former Activision-Blizzard CEO wants to buy TikTok
The United States has concerns that user data belonging to U.S. citizens on TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, might be accessible to the Chinese government. Therefore, Congress is considering legislation to restrict the app or ban it for certain users.
The legislation, which will come before Congress in the coming days, sets one condition for TikTok to avoid being banned: It must be sold to a U.S. company within a six-month period. It’s currently uncertain whether ByteDance will take steps in this direction. This is a tough decision because the app has hundreds of millions of users in the United States.
The US has been talking about the TikTok ban order in recent days. Biden supported this bill and said he would sign it.
According to reports, if ByteDance decides to sell TikTok to a U.S. company, there is a potential buyer. Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of the renowned gaming company Activision-Blizzard, is considering acquiring the app.
Sources indicate that Kotick expressed his interest in acquiring TikTok and his desire to form partnerships to achieve this goal during a recent conference attended by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other industry leaders. More importantly, it’s reported that Kotick shared his thoughts on this matter with ByteDance Chairman Zhang Yiming as well.
If ByteDance decides to sell TikTok as desired by the U.S., the app is said to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. While it’s uncertain how the company will decide, it’s said to be making efforts to oppose this legislation. Reports suggest that the company has sent notifications to its U.S. users seeking support.
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