After months of public statements of interest potential, Frank McCourt, his internet advocacy group Project Liberty, and a consortium of investors that includes Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary submitted an official proposal to purchase TikTok to its parent company ByteDance on Thursday.
The formal offer came a day before the Supreme Court was set to hear arguments in a case brought by ByteDance about whether a law forcing the company to sell TikTok to a U.S. company should be allowed to go through. The group, which calls itself the People’s Bid for TikTok, aims to reform the social media company by aligning it with McCourt’s long-held vision to restructure the internet’s infrastructure to collect less data on users.
“It would really catalyze this alternative internet,” McCourt told Fortune in an interview before the offer was publicly announced.
Project Liberty submitted its bid after securing financial backing for the deal, building out the tech stack it would need to power TikTok, and receiving a vote of confidence from government officials in both the Biden and incoming Trump administrations, who have been “encouraging” of the bid, Project Liberty president Tomicah Tilleman told Fortune.
“You put all of those pieces together and we feel that now is the right time to move forward with an offer,” Tilleman said.
On the financial aspects of the deal, Tilleman added that Project Liberty had “very significant expression of interest on the equity side” and a commitment on debt restructuring from “one of the country’s largest banks.” He declined to specify the investors and the bank.
The value of the deal was not made public. As a private company, ByteDance’s financials are not known and it is therefore difficult to fully value the organization in its entirety—and TikTok, specifically. However, a share buyback for ByteDance shareholders in December 2023 valued the company at $268 billion.
McCourt told Fortune he values TikTok at $20 billion.
Tilleman declined to specify the value of the offer submitted to ByteDance. One of the core issues is that amid its court fight to block the sale, ByteDance hasn’t yet specified exactly what assets will be included in a potential sale of TikTok. And though it does seem like the algorithm itself won’t be included it remains to be seen how much user data, branded trademarks, and other assets will be part of the deal. All of which could affect the final sale price.
The status of the Supreme Court also influenced the timing of the bid, according to O’Leary.
“We were concerned that the Justices were going into their considerations for the Friday hearing under the assumption that the company claimed there were no American buyers,” O’Leary told Fortune on Thursday.
Bytedance has engaged in a protracted legal battle to stop a law signed into effect by President Biden that requires the company sell TikTok by Jan. 19 or face a ban. By submitting their bid, McCourt’s consortium aims to trigger a 90-day extension written into the law in the case of an ongoing sale. The Department of Justice has final say in whether to allow the extension to go into effect. Tilleman said the investor group has been in touch with the Department of Justice and believes it can complete a deal in 90 days.
The law was borne out of extensive national-security fears related to TikTok’s Chinese ownership. Lawmakers and national-security experts had concerns over the data ByteDance collected and stored about Americans and the app’s ability to influence public opinion given its popularity.
ByteDance has vigorously opposed the forced sale, claiming it infringes on the free speech of the platform’s 170 million users.
However, demonstrating to the courts that there is a viable U.S. bid eliminates those concerns because if ByteDance were to sell, the service could continue for users, O’Leary said.
“We see no argument around free speech,” O’Leary said. “[TikTok] will continue to go on, except compliant with Congress's wishes and therefore this is not a free speech issue. It's simply your decision whether you want to sell it or not.”
