Kevin O’Leary puts TikTok’s $20 billion cash offer on the table: ‘The most interesting, complicated and crazy situation’

It’s a deal TikTok might not be able to refuse: $20 billion in cash from famous entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary.

“Right now, there’s $20 billion on the table,” O’Leary said. “In cash.” In “American Newsroom” Friday, just minutes after the US Supreme Court upheld a law requiring the Chinese-owned company to be sold or banned.

He continued: “There’s a reason why Congress put this before the Supreme Court. There’s a reason it ruled in its favor. It’s not worth the risk.” “Therefore, the obvious solution is to sell it to an American syndicate in accordance with the order.”

In its decision, the Supreme Court upheld the Protecting Americans from Controlled Foreign Applications Act, a law passed by Congress last April with broad bipartisan support. the law He gave TikTok nine months Either divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or remove it from US-based app stores and hosting services.

Biden will not implement the TikTok ban after signing the law in recent years, leaving the fate to Trump: officially

Congress originally cited concerns about the app’s ownership in China, which members said meant the app had Chinese ownership Possibility of being weaponised Or are used to collect massive amounts of user data, including from the approximately 170 million Americans who use TikTok.

TikTok, ByteDance and several of the app’s users quickly filed a lawsuit to block the ban in May, arguing that the legislation would suppress the freedom of expression of millions of Americans who use the platform. After a lower court upheld the ban, the Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok’s emergency request to either block or temporarily halt implementation of the law under an accelerated timeline just nine days before the ban goes into effect.

But now, TikTok will “disappear” by midnight on January 19, O’Leary notes, adding that the clock is “ticking” to reach an agreement.

“As of midnight on the 19th, any service provider — it could be Apple, it could be Oracle, it could be a video compression technology company that’s being paid as a consulting service, or any of it — to keep this thing alive is subject to A fine of $5,000 per day amounts to $170 million, or more than $1 billion per day.”

President-elect Donald Trump He posted on Truth Social that his “decision on TikTok will be made in the not-too-distant future,” but as president, Trump could move to delay the law, either by not aggressively enforcing it. This gives TikTok more time to find a buyer, continue business as is, or take other actions that would maintain the status quo.

“We don’t know if an executive order can override an act of Congress. There is a case in 1937 that was used successfully, but you don’t know. So, until now, unless the company enters into (an agreement) to be purchased by American union, and Biden, who is the executive in charge right now, is looming for 90 days, and this thing will go dark at midnight.”

“Because who would take 1,000,000,007 risks in the middle of the night? Who will do that? What advice would I advise? This is the most interesting, complicated and crazy situation I have ever been involved in. I’m very excited about that.

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On Friday’s “Maria Bartiromo Wall Street” show, incoming White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt confirmed that the president-elect is actively looking for ways to save TikTok.

“He has repeatedly said that he believes TikTok is an app on which tens of millions of Americans express their First Amendment rights, and the federal government cannot take away their First Amendment right and violate the constitutional right of tens of millions of Americans who express themselves,” Levitt said. freely through this app.” “However, of course the best outcome for everyone is for an American company to own this app.”

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Fox News’ Brian Depesch contributed to this report.