"Changes by the hour" - Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary updates about his TikTok deal

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary recently updated his followers about his offer of $20 billion to buy TikTok. Appearing on Fox Business, the host asked Kevin "the future" of the company and its roots in America.

Explaining, the Shark said that their deal changed a lot because of all the American regulations and laws while the parent company that owns TikTok, has its conditions.

The situation is made even tougher by how the company only has 8.9% of their vast share of the American population and even if the app goes dark, it will not affect their revenue.

Talking about his deal for TikTok, Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary said,

"What people don't understand about this deal is that it changes by the hour. ByteDance itself is a very successful company. It's worth about $250 billion of which only 8.9% is TikTok USA. So, while we're focused on TikTok USA, the company could just abandon and just turn it off if they wanted. It wouldn't really change the market cap of the underlying ownership."

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Shark Tank Investor Kevin O'Leary updates about his TikTok offer

Kevin O'Leary and Frank McCourt have offered TikTok to sell their algorithm in America for $20 billion. He says this is the only valid offer that is available on the table as there is chatter in the market but none of them have made an offer yet.

Further, it would be a tough negotiation according to O'Leary because the deal would have to be within the laws of the United States and the order of the Supreme Court while also managing the expectations of the TikTok owners. He says,

"And McCourt and I, we talk about this everyday. Because, the O'Leary McCourt offer is the only real one that the bankers have. There's a lot of hype from everyone else. But we're the only ones that actually made an offer.

Explaining further, he said,

It's occuring now, clear to me, that we're gonna have to do a dance between the original owners, the founders of ByteDance itself. And, interpreting the law of what Congress and the Supreme Court has held nine to zero. To save Tiktok US, it's gotta be a JV with the Chinese guys, except it's got to be in a way that's compliant with the law in the US."

Kevin then explained why was he late for the show that day. It was because he was on a phone call with Frank and they were just discussing their deal about TikTok.

Acknowledging his stance, the host asked Kevin that recently, America got news of DeepSeek which is yet another Chinese software, and even when TikTok was going dark, other Chinese apps popped up.

He asked if Kevin is worried that even if he buys Tiktok for America, a new Chinese app might emerge as a competition. To this, Shark Tank investor Kevin explains,

"We don't wanna buy the traditional methodology where we get litigated by state authorities and where parents groups sue us and physicians tell us we're causing mental illness in young people. We want the data to go back to the user so they own them. And that's our model."

Continuing, he said,

"The thing for me is I've got six and a half million Shark Tank companies on there. I really don't want this thing to go zero. I wanna solve it for them because we make our living off of TikTok, it's a very good engine for Customer Acquisition Costs."

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Shark Tank Season 15 releases new episodes, every Friday on ABC at 8 PM Eastern Time.