Former US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin joins those wishing to buy out TikTok

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is forming a group of investors to acquire TikTok from ByteDance, CNBC reports.

On March 13, the House of Representatives passed the bill “Protecting Americans from Programs Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act.”

The document stipulates that the Chinese company ByteDance must sell TikTok to a company not affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, or the application will be blocked in the United States.

“I think the legislation should pass and I think it [TikTok] should be sold,” said Mnuchin, who heads Liberty Strategic Capital, on CNBC’s Squawk Box program. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”

The bill has now been sent to the Senate, where its future remains uncertain, although President Joe Biden has previously stated that he would sign the law if it gets to his desk.

“This [TikTok] should be owned by U.S. businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China,” Mnuchin said.

ByteDance has not yet announced its intentions to sell the app. TikTok’s CEO also publicly stated that the company would fight this ultimatum.

It also remains unclear whether the Chinese government will allow ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American buyer.

According to PitchBook, ByteDance was valued at $220 billion during its last funding round in 2023. However, no separate valuation of TikTok has been made.

TikTok’s most valuable asset and, according to lawmakers, its weapon of greatest concern is its algorithm, which provides users with personalized content and was developed in China. Any sale of TikTok without the algorithm will be much less attractive to potential buyers.

Mnuchin did not specify who the other investors in such a deal would be, nor did he name the potential value of the social network. In addition, the former minister is not the only one interested in TikTok. Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is also looking for partners for a possible acquisition of the platform.