Wyoming billionaire Reid Rasner says his team has been in touch with White House over TikTok bid
'They know it, and I think they're taking it very seriously from what it sounds like,' Rasner, CEO of wealth management company Omnivest Financial, told NBC News on Thursday. 'There's no holding back. The money isn't the issue right now, bringing all the pieces together is the issue.'
Rasner declined to share specifics about his communications with the White House, but said the administration has provided key feedback on the offer presented to ByteDance, TikTok's parent company. He said his team has implemented the administration's recommended adjustments to 'ensure the deal aligns with national security and economic interests.'
A spokesperson for Vice President JD Vance, who in February was tapped by President Donald Trump to broker a potential sale of TikTok to a U.S.-based entity, declined to comment.
TikTok's fate in the U.S. has been up in the air since last year, following the passage of a bipartisan law signed by former President Joe Biden. The legislation forces ByteDance to sell the app to a non-Chinese buyer or face a nationwide ban. While TikTok had challenged the measure, the Supreme Court upheld it in the final days of the Biden administration.
The app briefly went dark in the U.S. on Jan. 18, the day before Trump's inauguration. It restored service roughly 12 hours later, after Trump signaled he would review the ban. The president signed an executive order on his first day in office 'instructing the Attorney General not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days,' effectively giving TikTok until April to find a U.S. buyer.
In recent months, rumors have continued to swirl about potential buyers for the app, which has millions of users and has been valued at up to $50 billion. Rasner's offer came close to that sum at $47.45 billion.
Trump recently floated the idea of a joint venture that produces a 50-50 ownership split between the U.S. and ByteDance, but the details of that proposal are unclear.
He told reporters Thursday that if a deal to buy TikTok isn't complete by the time his extension ends in April, he would "probably" extend the delay of the ban again.
"We have a lot of interest in TikTok," Trump said. "China is going to play a role, so hopefully China will approve of the deal."
Representatives for ByteDance and TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Rasner's bid. The company has not publicly confirmed negotiations with any party, nor has it confirmed its willingness to sell TikTok to a U.S. bidder.
Tensions continue to rise between the U.S. and China. Trump's now-20% tariff on all Chinese imports has triggered another trade war, and the two superpowers have also accelerated a Cold War-esque technological race for global dominance in artificial intelligence.
Rasner said that his team has not heard back from ByteDance.
'Negotiations are complex,' Rasner said, adding his team has hired Goodwin Procter, a global acquisitions firm, to help with the offer.
Other suitors have also put their names in the running for a TikTok bid, with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian most recently announcing he's joined Frank McCourt's bid.
But Rasner's bid thus far marks the first time a potential buyer has detailed their plans publicly. The billionaire provided a glimpse of his vision for TikTok's future on the website FoundersTok.com, which went live on Wednesday.
'Worried TikTok will be banned or sold to another corporate giant? We are too. That's why FoundersTok exists—to take back control of the platform you love and Make TikTok American,' the website states.
Under Rasner's proposed plan, TikTok would offer payment tiers for U.S. users to buy into the platform as 'founding members.' Creators who donate, in tiers starting at $280 per year and going up to $12,000 a year, would receive a set of perks including a boost to their content and a verification badge on their profile.
'This is about the American people, this is about bringing TikTok to America. I'm going to fight for that day in and day out,' Rasner said, touting the website. 'This is going to be something so special for creators. These are the people who truly built TikTok …. We're giving it back to them, the people who built TikTok. We're going to make sure they are front and center.'
Such a change would be reminiscent of Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter (now X) in 2022. Musk — who is President Trump's biggest ally — relaunched Twitter Blue as a paid subscription that granted users a verification badge and increased reach on the platform.
'TikTok will always be free, let's be very, very clear,' Rasner said. 'But if you're in an enterprise, a large corporation and you want to use TikTok, for $12,000 you're going to get exclusive benefits that will boost your content to the appropriate audience. You're going to be able to go viral more often.'
His proposal also aims to bring TikTok's headquarters, currently located in Los Angeles and Singapore, to Wyoming — where Rasner previously ran for a U.S. Senate seat.
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