Steven Mnuchin putting together investor group to buy TikTok

Steven Mnuchin is putting together an investor group to try to buy TikTok, he told CNBC on Thursday.

The former US treasury secretary’s comment comes just a day after the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would give the app’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban. If it did not do so, app stores including the Apple App Store and Google Play would be legally barred from hosting TikTok or providing web-hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

TikTok had called the bill a “ban” and urged senators to listen to their constituents before taking any action.

“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”

Discussions of banning TikTok in the US have circulated for years, spurred by fears the China-based company could collect sensitive user data on American citizens – an allegation TikTok has repeatedly denied. Donald Trump attempted a ban in 2020, which did not succeed.

The recent bipartisan push to force the company to divest marks the most serious challenge to the app yet, however, and now faces an uncertain vote in the Senate. The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday in favor of a ban, with 352 members of Congress voting yes on the bill and only 65 opposed. The company has called the bill unconstitutional.

TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, said on Wednesday that the company will exercise its legal rights to prevent a ban. He warned in a video message that the bill threatened to consolidate power in the hands of other big tech platforms while risking American jobs. TikTok users have flooded Congress’s phone lines to advocate against a ban, while the company has called on the Senate to reject the bill.

“This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: it’s a ban,” a TikTok spokesperson said. “We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7m small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service.”

Although other big tech firms could feasibly attempt to purchase TikTok, companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google are already facing intense scrutiny over allegations of antitrust violations and consolidation of power. Microsoft previously offered to buy TikTok in 2020, amid Trump’s attempt to ban the app.

Mnuchin served as treasury secretary in the Trump administration, where he oversaw sweeping tax cuts that benefited the wealthy and his department became mired in corruption scandals. Although Mnuchin at one time discussed using the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office after 6 January, he told CNBC last week that he would consider serving again in a second Trump administration.

Mnuchin’s private equity firm, Liberty Street Capital, also recently led a group of investors in a $1bn injection of funds into New York Community Bank as its shares plummeted and internal turmoil gripped the institution.

China’s ministry of foreign affairs spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said the House’s vote to force a sale used “robber’s logic” in a harsh statement on Thursday morning.

“When you see other people’s good things, you must find ways to own them,” Wang said.

Despite passing in the House, the potential ban faces an uncertain future. So far, not enough senators have said they would vote in favor of the bill for it to pass. Chew announced that he would head to Congress to speak with senators. TikTok has likewise said it is not clear whether the Chinese government would approve a sale to a US company.

The bill that passed in the House on Wednesday is the latest salvo in an ongoing political battle over the platform, which exploded in popularity after its emergence in 2017. The popular app has faced a number of bans and attempted bans in recent years, starting with an executive order by Donald Trump in 2020, which was ultimately blocked by courts on first amendment grounds. Trump has since reversed his stance, now opposing a ban on TikTok. Joe Biden, by contrast, has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.