Frank McCourt Talks Buying Tik Tok

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Welcome our Bloomberg Television and Radio audience as we continue to discuss TikTok's future in America with the man who wants to buy the US arm of the company. That's Frank McCourt, junior founder of Project Liberty and executive chairman of McCourt Global. It joins us. Now, Frank, really good to get your perspective. You've made that formal bid for TikTok through Project Liberty. Do you know yet of TikTok is for sale?

Well, no, we're about to find out. And let's steal a quick fly over here.

Where are we?

So? The Supreme Court ruled nine to zero that the TikTok must be either shutdown or sold. They also, by the way, we're very explicit about the national security threats of TikTok as it's currently designed. And this is a key point because the legislation that they upheld was very clear that this is a national security threat. The Supreme Court just validated that and reaffirmed that. So if it's sold,

Frank, do you have an I mean, I'm sure you have an idea of how much you would pay for it, but can you help me understand how you came to evaluation.

Yeah, well, you know it's worth something.

And on the other hand, we know what the you know what the entire company is worth on the secondary market.

You know what people are selling shares for now, so you have bookends.

And then we know that us TikTok is somewhere around eight percent ten percent the entire platform, so you have an ability there to be able to bookend or frame the valuation. Of course, we've done extensive modeling to sharpen that. Now, the one big if is what exactly are they selling? Are they selling the brand or not? Which of the assets are they selling? Of course, the user base and the data are.

What's critical to us.

But what we know for sure is they're not selling the algorithm, and that is key. If you come forward with all the money in the world and say I'll buy us TikTok, but I need the algorithm. You're not going to get it because the legislation won't allow it. And the Supreme Court upheld that legislation and said any buyer must to be eligible, must not use or rely on any of the Chinese technology that is really fundamental

Frank Roman here, I am curious though about China's involvement in this. They obviously have a big say and whether this gets sold and potentially who it gets sold to. Are you worried at all about but your bid? I'm specifically speaking about your potential bid for this company that it would satisfy whatever China's looking for. And I don't know. Do you know what China's looking for out of this?

Well?

I know what China is is for sure clear about They're not letting the algorithm go, right. They've said this is part of Chinese government property, part of the so the IP is something that they have a white knuckle grip on and by the way, clear and any buyer is not going to get that anyway because the legislation won't allow it. So I think the win here for China is a buyer coming for that can comply with what China has said they're not selling and make a

So let's see.

We now know that the first of those is correct, that the Supreme Court has upheld the government's position, and will now see if by Dance changes its mind and wants to enter into conversations about a deal. Why not why not sell it for something rather than get nothing and just shut it down.

So Frank, in terms of trying to put a value on this, and I know it's going to take some time to hear from those folks before you can put a true value. Do you worry at all about potential attrition of users that with all this talk about a ban, there's been and a lot of anecdotal evidence of users power users migrating to other social media platforms and anticipation of a ban. Does that worry you at all that you might be left with an asset that is just seeing too many people flee.

Absolutely.

I think it's one of the big risks here, which is why we're hoping that the app stays led up. And by the way, President Biden and President elect Trump have both said they want to see the applet up, they don't want to see it banned. The key here is in order for that to happen and the ninety days to kick in, there needs to be a viable buy There needs to be a deal, and for a buyer to be viable, they need to have the technology stack to move the user base in the data over

Frank, there is a conversation that circulates that potentially TikTok is getting wrapped into trade conversations when it comes to China. Have you spoken to anyone in the Trump administration about this?

Yeah, we have, and you know, Kevin Olaria has joined our bid and Kevin went tomorrow lago. We spoke to President elect Trump, and President elect Trump encouraged us to carry on. And I suspect that this this will be a broader conversation that President elect Trump will have with President she that said, we're still back to square one about how do you buy us TikTok, keep it let up, prevent a ban, and comply with the legislation and the Supreme Court ruling.

And so I'm sure they'll be really and dealing going on, and there always is.

But the point is there are some fundamental criteria necessary to make the deal. And that's the key, and that's where Project Liberty comes in. Because we've been building this alternative tech stack for the last five years.

We're in the right place at the right time.

Frank, have you been in contact at all with the Trump administration or the Trump transition.

Yes, as I just mentioned. You know, Kevin, who's my partner on this, has gone Tomorrow logo with like two weekends in a row now to be in touch with all of the players there, the President elect himself and also.

His key team.

So we're we from the very outset here, wanted to make sure that the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration, and of course both President Biden and President Elect Trump knew exactly what we're up to it.

We don't want any surprises here. We want to help.

We want to be part of the solution to keep TikTok lit up, avoid the band, and that's what President Biden and President elect Trump want as well.

So let's make a deal. Let's get this done.

We have the solution, all right, Well, they're president elect has said he needs time to review this. Of course, he's inaugurated on Monday. Frank, We're going to catch up with you sometime soon in the future once we get