By Haleluya Hadero
Billionaire businessman and real estate mogul Frank McCourt said he's putting together a consortium to purchase TikTok's U.S. business, adding to the number of investors hoping to benefit from a new federal law that requires TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the popular platform or face a ban.
The announcement, made Wednesday, said the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers was organizing the bid in consultation with the investment bank Guggenheim Securities and "with the goal of placing people and data empowerment at the center of the platform's design and purpose."
If a sale occurs, McCourt said he would plan to restructure TikTok and give more agency to people "over their digital identities and data" by migrating the platform to an open-source protocol that allows for more transparency.
Other investors, including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have expressed a desire to purchase TikTok. However, parent company ByteDance has already said it does not plan to sell the platform. The Chinese government is also unlikely to approve a sale – especially not one that includes the recommendation engine that powers the videos that populates users' feeds.
Last week, ByteDance and TikTok filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government to block the law from going into effect. On Tuesday, eight TikTok creators filed their own challenge, arguing the law violates their First Amendment rights to free speech.
The company also has been waging a legal battle in Montana to block a state law that would ban the video-sharing platform.
On Tuesday, TikTok, Montana users and the state of Montana agreed to put a stay on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Montana's first-in-the-nation ban while the federal lawsuits are decided.
Montana's law, which was temporarily blocked before it could take effect on Jan. 1, would be nullified if a company that is not based in a country designated as a foreign adversary acquires TikTok.
McCourt is worth $1.4 billion, according to Forbes. He sold the Dodgers for $2 billion in 2012 to Guggenheim Baseball Management. In 2016, he bought the French soccer club Marseille.
Haleluya Hadero is an AP business writer. Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed reporting.
Ubisoft shares jump following reports of Tencent, Guillemot family considering buyout
Shares of Ubisoft jumped more than 30% Friday, following reports that Tencent and the Guillemot family are considering a buyout of the video game maker.
Bloomberg news reported that Tencent and Guillemot family — minority stakeholders in Ubisoft — have been discussing ways to stabilize the company after it lost more than half its market value this year. Shares surged 33.5% to about $15.57 Friday, according to FactSet.
Ubisoft declined to comment. Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
France-based Ubisoft is the publisher behind the well-known franchise "Assassin's Creed." Ubisoft's shares fell last month to their lowest point in more than a decade after its latest title "Star Wars Outlaws" underperformed and the company announced that it would delay the latest "Assassin's Creed" game.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft's CEO, said in a statement last week that the company's "second quarter performance fell short of our expectations."
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