Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is reportedly building an investor group to buy the social media platform TikTok from its parent company, Chinese tech giant ByteDance.
“I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday. “I understand the technology, it’s a great business, and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”
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“You’re trying to buy TikTok?” a CNBC host asked Mnuchin, to which the former Treasury Secretary replied, “I am, because it should be owned by U.S. businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China.”
Mnuchin, who served as Treasury Secretary under former President Donald Trump, added that he has “spoken to a bunch of people,” but did not disclose the identities of the potential investors.
“I can’t tell that to you now, but it would be a combination of investors,” he said. “There would be no one investor that controls this.”
“The issue is all about the technology. This needs to be controlled by a U.S. business,” Mnuchin reiterated.
The former Treasury Secretary’s comments come after 19 U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill that could force ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months or face a ban from the United States.
Moreover, there is a real possibility that the U.S. government will push the bill forward to the desk of President Joe Biden — who has already said would sign it — given the bipartisan nature of the legislation.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the bill. The legislation will now make its way over to the Senate.
While talking to CNBC, Mnuchin said that when he was Treasury Secretary, “I had President Trump sign an order that TikTok had to be sold, and I continue to believe that.”
“So, I think the legislation should pass,” Mnuchin said.
As Breitbart News reported, there are others who have expressed interest in buying TikTok, such as former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who recently revealed that he, too, has been pitching potential investors, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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