Billionaire Reddit founder joins growing ranks of TikTok bidders
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Mr Alexis Ohanian joins a growing roster of industry and media celebrities hoping to acquire ByteDance’s prized asset.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
NEW YORK – Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has joined a bid led by real estate mogul Frank McCourt to buy TikTok and stave off a US ban, becoming the latest big industry name to covet a slice of the Chinese-owned social media phenom.
Mr Ohanian, who founded the popular forum website in his 20s and is married to retired tennis star Serena Williams, joins a growing roster of industry and media celebrities hoping to acquire ByteDance’s prized asset.
Tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley is leading a competing group of investors, which includes YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast.
US President Donald Trump has given the company until April to orchestrate a deal that satisfies US national security concerns – or face a nationwide ban.
Mr Ohanian said on X he will work with Mr McCourt, a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers who emerged as an aggressive and unexpected suitor for the app.
“A TikTok for the people, by the people. Let’s see if we can pull this off,” Mr Ohanian said.
Mr McCourt said previously he would need US$25 billion (S$33.5 billion) to buy the app, far more than his net worth of US$2.4 billion at the time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He has held fund-raising meetings in New York and San Francisco to help recruit potential banking partners.
Mr Ohanian added on X he wanted to give users ownership over their data, a vision shared by Mr McCourt, who has unveiled a plan to move TikTok’s users and content to an American-made network of servers.
Mr McCourt launched Project Liberty, then a US$100 million initiative based on the notion that social media companies are too powerful and controlling. Bloomberg
