TikTok It faces strong pressure in the United States, where Congress seeks to block the social network if ByteDance refuses to sell it. In a context that today appears quite unfavorable for the platform of Chinese origin, potential buyers have already begun to show interest. One of the brightest names that has been known in recent hours is that of Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard, who would already be looking for partners to move forward with the hypothetical business. And among them would be Sam Altmanthe leader of OpenAI.
As reported The Wall Street Journal, Kotick would have contacted Zhang Yiming, co-founder of ByteDance, to express his position regarding a possible sale of TikTok. But not only that, but he would also have met with several businessmen to propose that they join him in this adventure. Among those people would have been Altman, whose artificial intelligence startup could play a key role in making this apparent acquisition opportunity come to fruition.
According to the aforementioned media, OpenAI could use TikTok data to train its artificial intelligence models. Bobby Kotick himself would have proposed this scenario in order to seduce the leader of the San Francisco-based firm, and would even have agreed to lead the search for the necessary capital.
Bobby Kotick, from Activision Blizzard to TikTok?
How much could purchasing TikTok cost? For now, it is impossible to know. However, the WSJ indicates that the estimates of a possible price would be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. If so, Bobby Kotick will have to ally himself with several bigwigs from the financial and business sector, if he really intends to carry out what today seems like a pharaonic mission. Of course, if Sam Altman and OpenAI get on this train, they could be the perfect bait to attract important funds.
Bobby Kotick’s apparent interest in leading the purchase of TikTok is already generating quite a bit of noise. The executive left his position as CEO of Activision Blizzard at the end of 2023, after the purchase of the video game giant by Microsoft was completed. The aforementioned, a very controversial character within the industry, left the company with several hundred million dollars in his pockets as compensation for his shareholding.
The businessman’s approach to ByteDance could open a new commercial bid for the future of TikTok. Let us remember that, in 2020, corporations such as Oracle, Microsoft and even Walmart participated in a race to try to buy the social network. However, everything came to nothing.
It will be interesting to see if Bobby Kotick’s plan to attract Sam Altman It also serves to attract the attention of those from Redmond, who today are the main investors in OpenAI. In any case, until there is a resolution by the United States Congress on what TikTok’s options are to continue operating in that country, everything that is said is part of the realm of assumptions.
The social network, awaiting a definition from the US Congress
Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok within a period of no more than 165 days. Otherwise, the application is exposed to being blocked in the North American country. The vote was a resounding 50 to 0. In the coming days, the legislation will be discussed in the House of Representatives, where everything suggests that it will be approved without problems. If this comes to fruition, it will be sent to the Senate.
From TikTok they believe that the vote among the senators will be more polarized than among the representatives. However, there is great concern in the company that the law will also receive the approval of the Upper House. Especially because Joe Bidenpresident of the United States, has already announced that he will sign the legislation if it is approved in Congress.
Beyond the hypothetical purchase offer that Bobby Kotick, Sam Altman and company could make, ByteDance would seek to exhaust all the tools at its disposal before being forced to sell TikTok. As mentioned The Wall Street JournalIf the law is approved, the Chinese firm would rely on the first amendment of the US Constitution to challenge its legalityarguing that forcing her to leave the social network would be a violation of freedom of expression.
The possible blocking of TikTok in the United States has also led to an unexpected turn. donald trump, who wanted to block the platform during his presidency, now expressed his opposition to this possible outcome. According to the Republican, who aspires to return to the White House, the veto would benefit Facebook, which he classified as “the true enemy of the people.”