The stage could be becoming set for a bidding war for TikTok if legislation is passed in the U.S. requiring the social media platform’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the company.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted in favor of a bill that would force ByteDance to either sell TikTok or face a ban in the U.S.

The bill now moves up to the Senate and, if passed there and signed by President Joe Biden, ByteDance will have five months to sell the company, or TikTok will be removed from all app stores across all formats.

The whole affair is predicated upon the notion that TikTok, because of its Chinese ownership, represents a national security threat — both in terms of the data it could potentially share with the Chinese government, and the misinformation it could spread across western democracies.

But what if the company was in U.S. hands?

Mnuchin Announces Intent To Buy

Enter two possible contenders. A group led by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and a rival group potentially led by Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard.

Following Wednesday’s House vote, Mnuchin appeared on CNBC and told presenters that he was putting together an investment group to buy TikTok.

“I think the legislation should be passed and I think it should be sold. I understand the technology, it’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok,” Mnuchin said.

“It should be owned by U.S. businesses,” he said. “There’s no way the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China. I’ve spoken to a bunch of people — I can’t tell you who right now — but it would be a group of investors that controlled this.”

Also Read: TikTok Bill Passes House Vote, Influencers On Edge: Chinese-Owned App Used By 150M Americans

KotickTok?

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter, that Kotick has already been wooing ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming.

The price tag would likely be in the hundreds of billions of dollars and both Mnuchin and Kotick would need backers with extremely deep pockets.

Again, according to unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal claims Kotick floated the idea at a conference last week to a number of high rollers that included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman — which would give the Microsoft Corporation MSFT and OpenAI partnership the platform they need to compete on terms with Meta Platform Inc.’s META Facebook and Instagram.

Expert Reaction

Andrew Curran, an artificial intelligence expert and writer, posted on X: “Bobby Kotick is reportedly seeking partners for an American acquisition of TikTok. The deal would be valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. Considering the immense source of training data TikTok represents, there’s likely to be interest from all major players.”

Author and broadcaster Brian O’Sullivan also wrote on X: “Steven Mnuchin said he wants to buy TikTok. Yeah, that’s just what the kids want. Some old, humorless, white finance guy running TikTok.”

If a bidding war is looming, it could certainly add many dollars to the eventual sales price of TikTok, should ByteDance opt for the sale.

Daniel Ives, tech analyst at Wedbush, said: “In our view this is all a game of high stakes poker that has a broad negative ripple impact for US/China relations with a House Bill that remains a major head-scratcher.”

He added: “While the price tag will be eye-popping, TikTok’s strategic value and consumer platform will have a number of financial and tech strategic players interested if a sale becomes the formal path.”

Ives also noted private equity consortiums might emerge to offer rival bids, while some of the existing major tech players might show interest.

The fate of TikTok is not yet sealed. It’s not highly unlikely that the Senate will vote the bill down, presenting the rival argument against national security, that free speech is more important.

But it has underlined the great value assigned to TikTok — not only in financial terms but in terms of its users.

One of the main arguments presented in opposition to the bill in the House debate that preceded the vote was about the Americans who use TikTok for work. Those who monetize their posts on the site, and those using it to promote their businesses — small businesses: the backbone of the U.S. economy.

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