Kevin O’Leary puts TikTok’s $20B deal on the table: ‘A very interesting, complex, crazy situation’

It’s a deal that TikTok may not be able to refuse: a $20 billion investment from legendary entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary.

“Right now, $20 billion is on the table. Money,” O’Leary said on “America’s Newsroom” on Friday, minutes after the US Supreme Court upheld a rule that the Chinese-owned company must sell or be banned.

“There’s a reason Congress put this order before the Supreme Court. There’s a reason they ruled in favor of it. It’s not worth taking the risk,” he continued. “And so the obvious solution is to sell it to an American syndicate as instructed.”

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

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Congress initially cited concerns about the app’s ownership in China, with members saying the app had the potential to be weaponized or used to collect large amounts of user data, including about 170 million Americans who use TikTok.

TikTok, ByteDance and several users of the app quickly sued to block the ban in May, saying the law would stifle free speech for the millions of Americans who use the platform. After a lower court upheld the ban, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an urgent request by TikTok to block or halt the implementation of the law under an accelerated timeline nine days before the ban goes into effect.

But now, TikTok will “go dark” at midnight on Jan. 19, O’Leary notes, while adding that the clock is “ticking” for a deal.

“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 paid as a consulting service, anywhere — to keep this thing alive, it’s up to them [a] $5,000 a day is a penalty times 170 million. That’s over $1 billion a day,” O’Leary explained.

President-elect Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “his decision on TikTok will be made in the near future,” but as president, Trump could move to delay the law, or not forcefully implement it. This allows TikTok more time to find a buyer, continue operating as is or take other actions that would support the status quo.

“We don’t know if an executive order can override a law from Congress. There’s a 1937 case that was successfully used, but you don’t know. So right now, unless a company goes into [an] a deal that will be bought by an American corporation, and Biden, who is currently in charge, is proposing 90 days, this thing goes dark at midnight,” O’Leary added.

“Because who’s going to take 1,000,000,007 accidents at midnight? Who will do that? What advice would you give? This is the most interesting, complex, and crazy situation I have ever been involved in. I’m very happy with it.”

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In “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” on Friday, incoming White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt confirmed that the president-elect is actively looking for ways to save TikTok.

“You’ve said over and over that you believe that TikTok is an app for tens of millions of Americans to express their First Amendment rights and the federal government can’t just shut down that First Amendment right and violate the constitutional right of tens of millions of Americans to express themselves freely on this app,” Leavitt said. that being said, the best outcome for everyone is for an American company to have this program.”

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Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.