Steve Mnuchin Is Among Buyers Interested in TikTok—Can It Be Sold?

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Rumble (RUM), and others expressed interest in buying TikTok as Congress considers banning the app in the U.S. if China’s ByteDance does not divest the platform.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would force China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban of the social media app in the U.S., citing national security concerns.

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC Thursday that he is organizing an investor group to buy TikTok. Mnuchin served under the Trump administration and was chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) during reviews regarding national security concerns about TikTok.

Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski also said earlier in the week that the online video platform is “ready to join a consortium with other parties seeking to acquire and operate TikTok inside the United States,” adding that Rumble is “ready to serve as a cloud technology partner.”

Kevin O’Leary, an investor and personality on the ABC show series “Shark Tank,” proposed purchasing TikTok as well, saying that “TikTok is a very important platform and this is an issue that won’t go away.”

Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision, a videogame publisher acquired by Microsoft (MSFT), has reportedly expressed interest in buying the platform to TikTok executives, according to the Wall Street Journal. Kotick is reportedly in search of partners to join him in the purchase and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman could be in the mix, the WSJ reported.

Microsoft (MSFT), Walmart (WMT), Oracle (ORCL), and even Twitter (now Elon Musk’s X) were also among those that reportedly expressed interest in acquiring TikTok in the past when the app came under fire.

However, it remains unclear whether ByteDance is open to selling TikTok, and analysts suggested a potential sale could be difficult given geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China and national security concerns surrounding the data the app uses.

“At the heart of the issue, China/Bytedance will never allow the source code to be sold to a US tech company in our view which makes this all a spider web issue for any potential strategic buyer,” Wedbush analysts said in a note Thursday.

“A sale is a possibility but would only be a last option for ByteDance,” CFRA analyst Angelo Zino told Investopedia.

Zino added “If somehow, we get through this entire process and TikTok is forced to sell or risk a full ban,” the firm thinks “the most likely outcome is that ByteDance exits the market rather than selling the U.S. TikTok business.” He noted that the “main reason is that China would need to sign off on any sale” which could be unlikely “given the geopolitical tensions with the U.S.”

After passing with bipartisan support in the House, the bill moves to the Senate. Wedbush analysts said that “there are many questions around its ultimate path in the Senate and if this bill ever sees an actual vote.”

CFRA analyst Angelo Zino noted that “a proposed bill last year never gained enough momentum to pass,” adding that the firm has its “doubts about this bill gaining enough support from Democrats in a presidential election year given the popularity of the app.”

Wedbush analysts said they “see a 25% chance that TikTok ultimately gets banned in the US and thus faces an uphill battle after the House green light,” comparing the situation to “a game of high stakes poker that has a broad negative ripple impact for US/China relations with a House Bill that remains a major head scratcher.”

The analysts also raised concerns about “potential retaliatory actions” from China directed at U.S. companies like Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA).

Analysts have indicated that a U.S. TikTok ban could benefit Snap (SNAP), Meta (META), and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL).