Frank McCourt's Bold Move: Reimagining TikTok's U.S. Landscape

Frank McCourt has expressed a willingness to retain TikTok's existing investors in the deal to acquire its U.S. operations from ByteDance. The bid, valued at $20 billion, includes contingencies to address national security concerns. McCourt's consortium aims for a compliant arrangement with potential ByteDance founder involvement.

Business tycoon Frank McCourt is considering keeping TikTok's current investors involved in his consortium's bid to acquire the U.S. operations of the popular Chinese-owned app. During an interview with Reuters, McCourt confirmed the formal offer to ByteDance, valuing TikTok without its algorithm at around $20 billion.

The offer remains independent of U.S. firms like General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital, although McCourt expressed openness to maintaining investment from existing stakeholders, including founder Zhang Yiming, if approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Project Liberty, McCourt's firm, has developed solutions to address U.S. national security concerns, following calls from Congress for ByteDance to divest its TikTok ownership. The move could ensure TikTok's continued operations in the U.S. under President-elect Donald Trump's administration, pending a compliant deal.

(With inputs from agencies.)