Last week an assistant for vice -president JD Vance contacted the billionaire Frank McCourt.
The subject at hand was the $ 20 billion long-shot offer from Mr. McCourt to buy Tiktok, the video app in Chinese. Mr. Vance's assistant wanted details about the bid, which, according to two people who are familiar with the process, was one of the many public overtures for the app.
The investigation was one of the earliest steps in Mr. Vance to create a deal for the popular app after President Trump tapped him earlier this month to find an arrangement to make it. Tiktok was recently forbidden in the United States under a new federal law that forbade distribution in the country if it was not sold to a non-Chinese owner, although Mr Trump delayed the enforcement of the law until the beginning of April.
Mr. Trump's mission delves Mr. Vance in a loaded geopolitical and business negotiation on the fate of the app, which has around 170 million American users. It is not clear who could buy Tiktok in the United States, or even whether China or Bytedance, the owner of Tiktok, would allow a sale. And the Trump government is examined for his decision to ignore the deadline of the law on January 19 for a sale or a ban.
Mr. Vance's involvement ensures that he and Mr Trump – who both once supported the Bannet of Tiktok because of the national security problems – have a public responsibility to save it, according to analysts and people involved in negotiations for a sale . Ticking Mr. Vance could also help to give negotiations more credibility, said Peter Harrell, a former civil servant of the White House of Biden who worked on national security, technical and economic issues.
“What he brings the role is that everyone will take his call and take him seriously,” said Mr. Harrell. “Most people, since Trump has been pretty clear that he has tapped VANCE for this, will assume that Vance speaks for the president.”
Mr. Vance's involvement in a Tiktok deal was previously reported by Punchbowl News and confirmed by a person who is familiar with the case. A spokeswoman for Mr. Vance, Taylor of Kirk, said in a statement that “President Trump and Vice President Vance are committed to preserving freedom of expression and continuing access to TIKTOK, while the data of Americans are protected against any form of safety threat. “
Tiktok has not returned a request for comment.
On Thursday, Apple and Google Tiktok recovered to their American app stores after they had received letters from the Ministry of Justice, they assured that they would not receive fines for wearing taps in their app shops.
Mr. Vance worked for more than five years as a junior venture capitalist and a biotech director, including in Mithril Capital, founded by Peter Thiel, an early backer of Silicon Valley by President Trump. That experience helped him to forge connections with other influential technical managers and investors such as David Sacks, now the White House for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, and the billionaire Elon Musk.
“He cares a lot about national security, so I believe that he will ensure that the personal data of Americans will no longer be fed to an authoritarian opponent,” said Crystal McKellar, a venture capitalist who with Mr. Vance in Mithril Capital worked, in an SMS message.
Mr. VANCE, who, together with Mr Thiel in Rumble, has invested a YouTube rival for conservatives, has also expressed distrust of larger technology companies.
Paul Gallant, a technology policy analyst at TD Cowen, pointed out that a successful Tiktok deal would keep one of the biggest competitors of Google and Meta on the market.
“Vance is not a fan of the largest American internet companies,” he said. Tiktok help survive “would certainly join Vance's personal philosophy about Big Tech.”
Mr. Vance is confronted with a long task to come up with a deal for TIKTOK. The last official of the Trump administration that led an attempt to negotiate a deal for Tiktok, former finance minister Steven Mnuchin, who previously worked as a Goldman Sachs banker, could ultimately finish nothing.
The assistant for Mr. Vance, who reached contact with Mr. McCourt, wanted formal documents that explained his bid, which is an offer to buy the app without his coveted algorithm. Mr. McCourt submitted them last week, according to the people who are familiar with the process. Mr. Vance's spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comments on the involvement of his office with Mr. McCourt.
Jesse Tinsley, the founder of Payroll firm employer.com, has submitted a similar bid to buy the app without the algorithm. His offer, with a consortium of investors such as the Chief Executive from Roblox, the video game platform, is for “more than $ 30 billion,” he said in an interview. He said his group is planning “to re -make the algorithm or something like that with our own team.”
Mr Tinsley has received commitments for the money from other investors, private equity companies and sovereign asset funds, and was also “open to President Trump's new American sovereign asset fund,” he said.
But there has not been much dialogue yet.
“We haven't heard of Tiktok or Bytedance yet,” said Mr Tinsley. “This entire process is unique in the sense that it is not a normal M&A process.”
