TikTok bidder to offer ‘significantly’ more than $27 billion

NEW YORK – A group of American investors vying to buy TikTok with support from top YouTuber MrBeast has secured more than US$20 billion (S$27 billion) for their offer, according to Mr Jesse Tinsley, the tech entrepreneur organising the bid.

The group has also recruited two additional tech chief executives as investors, including Roblox co-founder and CEO David Baszucki and Anchorage Digital co-founder and CEO Nathan McCauley, Mr Tinsley said in an interview with Bloomberg.

An Anchorage Digital spokesperson confirmed Mr McCauley’s participation, while Roblox had no immediate comment. 

Mr Tinsley, the founder of Employer.com, told Bloomberg on Jan 29 that his group’s bid is “significantly higher” than a roughly US$20 billion offer from a rival buyer, a possible reference to the Project Liberty bid organised by former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and Shark Tank personality Kevin O’Leary. They have estimated it would take US$25 billion to buy the app.

It remains unclear if Mr Tinsley and his investor group will be serious contenders for what are shaping up to be competitive and fast-evolving negotiations.

Notably, Mr Tinsley said his group has not been in direct contact with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance, which has maintained that TikTok’s US business is not for sale.

“We have not heard back directly,” Mr Tinsley told Bloomberg. “It has been radio silence on their side.”

Since President Donald Trump signed an executive order to delay by 75 days the enforcement of a law that would ban TikTok unless ByteDance divests, he has floated various buyers and proposals aimed at keeping TikTok running in the US.

It is unknown whether ByteDance and the Chinese government consider offers from Mr Tinsley and Mr McCourt as palatable paths forward.

There may, however, be more openness to negotiating a deal now that ByteDance has run out of legal options to save TikTok in the US, and the fact that the app could be a powerful bargaining chip in a broader US-China trade war where Mr Trump is threatening heavier tariffs against China.

Mr Tinsley’s group “could stabilise TikTok and put it in a good place for users and data integrity across the United States population”, Mr Tinsley said. “We feel good and we have an all US-backed team with all of the data and servers and technology.” 

He noted that MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is not exclusively signed on with this bid.

A spokesperson for Mr Donaldson told Bloomberg that the top content creator has not committed to any one effort and is speaking with several parties with the goal of attaching himself to the eventual front runner. BLOOMBERG