Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has reportedly expressed interest in buying China’s TikTok amid talk of banning the app in the United States, given that its parent company is the Chinese tech giant ByteDance, which is beholden to the Chinese Communist regime.
Kotick, the former CEO of the video game company Activision Blizzard and a polarizing figure in the video gaming industry, has approached ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming to share his interest in buying TikTok, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
The Chinese app could cost hundreds of billions of dollars, meaning Kotick would need to acquire a lot of partners to make that purchase happen. The ex-Activision CEO has reportedly pitched several people, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
SUN VALLEY, IDAHO – JULY 11: CEO of Activision Bobby Kotick arrives at the Sun Valley Lodge for the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 11, 2023 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every July, some of the world’s most wealthy and powerful businesspeople from the media, finance, technology and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive weeklong conference. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The sudden interest in buying TikTok, one of the most popular social media platforms in the country, comes after 19 U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill that could force ByteDance to sell TikTok within six months or face a ban from the United States.
The legislation noted that “applications like TikTok that are controlled by foreign adversaries pose an unacceptable risk to US national security.”
Moreover, given the bipartisan nature of the bill, there is a real possibility that the U.S. government will push the legislation forward to the desk of President Joe Biden, who has already said would sign it.
Former President Donald Trump also reacted to the recently introduced legislation, saying that a ban would not be advantageous for the country, as it would only help Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook platform, which he called the “true enemy of the people,” citing allegations of election interference.
In his new book, Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans, Breitbart News senior contributor and the President of the Government Accountability Institute Peter Schweizer uncovered China Communist Party and Chinese military officials referring to TikTok as a “modern day Trojan Horse” and “information-driven mental warfare” aimed squarely at American teenagers.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
