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Activision Blizzard’s ex-CEO seeks to buy TikTok before it’s banned in the US.
Ex-Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is looking to buy TikTok as concerns over the app getting banned in the US continue to mount. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, legislation that would either ban TikTok or force its sale is on its way towards an important vote in the U.S. government, raising interest in potential buyers of the popular app.
Kotick is only one of several executives interested in buying TikTok amid a potential ban, though the report notes that any price tag attached to such a sale would be, “in the hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Ex-Activision CEO Bobby Kotick wants to buy TikTok
U.S. lawmakers have been concerned about TikTok’s China-based parent company Bytedance for several years now, suggesting that the app would share personal user data with the Chinese government or feature content that would influence American users by other means. A new bill passing the House Energy and Commerce Committee won a 50-0 vote, giving opposition to the app some real momentum.
According to The Wall Street Journal, even TikTok’s owners were caught off guard by the new bill gaining traction so quickly. Now that it’s past the committee, the bill will head to the House of Congress for another vote this week, where it’s expected to gain approval. If the bill passes that vote, it will head to the Senate and thus put TikTok’s parent company ByteDance in real danger of losing control of the app in America.
To get around this, U.S. tech and media companies are considering buying out ByteDance so that the app is American-owned, and thus won’t raise concerns within the government. Ex-Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has already expressed interest to ByteDance as he looks to make a purchase happen, while also looking for partners. According to the trade, Kotick floated the potential purchase to a table of people including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The sale would reportedly cost hundreds of billions of dollars, so Kotick would have to find a partner to make it work. Kotick recently left Activision Blizzard after Microsoft sealed the deal on its acquisition, while OpenAI’s Sam Altman himself was fired and subsequently rehired in a controversial move from the company’s board of directors.
