Jimmy Donaldson, better known as the popular YouTuber MrBeast, is part of an investment group reportedly aiming to purchase TikTok with a bid exceeding $20 billion. According to Bloomberg, Donaldson has joined forces with Jesse Tinsley, founder of Employer.com, Roblox co-founder and CEO David Baszucki, and Nathan McCauley, head of the crypto platform Anchorage Digital, in this ambitious endeavor. The group estimates that acquiring TikTok would require around $25 billion.
Despite their efforts, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has firmly stated that its U.S. operations are not for sale. The Tinsley-led group has yet to receive a direct response from ByteDance. Meanwhile, representatives for Donaldson have indicated that he is engaging with multiple parties and is prepared to align with the leading bidder, suggesting flexibility in his approach. On January 22, Donaldson tweeted, "The leading groups who are all credible bidding on TikTok have reached out for us to help them, I’m excited to partner/make this a reality. Big things cooking."
Earlier in the week, former U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned that Microsoft was in discussions to acquire TikTok, expressing his desire for a competitive bidding environment. Microsoft, however, has not confirmed these discussions.
TikTok faced a brief outage for its 170 million U.S. users just before a law came into effect on January 19, which required ByteDance to sell TikTok due to national security concerns or face a ban. The app went offline after the Supreme Court rejected TikTok's First Amendment challenge. The justices noted that while data collection is widespread, "TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns."
Following assurances from Trump, TikTok was able to resume operations, with the company stating, "It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States."
Upon taking office on January 20, Trump issued an executive order to delay the enforcement of the law by 75 days. He is currently in negotiations with various entities, including Elon Musk, the owner of X/Twitter, regarding a potential acquisition of TikTok.
