The billionaire's proposal comes
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2024 6:14 am
Billionaire Frank McCourt, known especially in the real estate sector and for being the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is back in the news after announcing that he is preparing an offer to buy TikTok's US assets through Project Liberty , an organization to which he has already communicated his contribution of 500 million dollars and whose main objective is to fight and bet on a safe internet where user data belongs to the users themselves and not to technological giants such as TikTok, owned by ByteDance, Meta , among others.
after the announcement of the recent decision by US President Joe Biden to force ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, to sell the app or face a ban within the country. This decision comes through a law signed this year as part of an increasingly rigid and strict stance against China . Since then, different people have come out communicating their interest in buying the app, including Frank McCourt.
The popular short-video app is currently valued between $35 billion and $40 billion by analysts at belize whatsapp lead Bloomberg Intelligence. McCourt, meanwhile, plans to form a consortium to make a bid driven by the goal of transforming the social media landscape. While Frank has assets worth an estimated $1.4 billion — putting him on the Forbes billionaires list for the first time this year — his wealth falls short of TikTok’s estimated worth, and he has already announced plans to raise money from foundations, endowments, pension funds and the general public as part of a plan to shift U.S. users’ accounts to a protocol that gives them more control over their digital data.
Who is Frank McCourt?
This isn't the first time Frank McCourt has ventured into the tech world. After selling the Dodgers in 2012 for more than $2 billion, the businessman has focused on tech initiatives. In 2021, he announced the launch of Project Liberty , an initiative that aims to create a safer social media environment. Since then, McCourt has invested around $500 million in the project.
As the billionaire has pointed out in an interview, his main goal is not the TikTok algorithm , but to create a website where users can have control over their data and identity. To do this, it would be necessary to introduce a new open-source protocol on TikTok that offers American users more control over their own information. For its part, the project already has the support of big names in the sector such as Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web (WWW).
While McCourt has his vision well planned, there are several challenges and obstacles he will have to overcome before he can achieve his goal, starting with ByteDance's reluctance to sell the platform.
after the announcement of the recent decision by US President Joe Biden to force ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, to sell the app or face a ban within the country. This decision comes through a law signed this year as part of an increasingly rigid and strict stance against China . Since then, different people have come out communicating their interest in buying the app, including Frank McCourt.
The popular short-video app is currently valued between $35 billion and $40 billion by analysts at belize whatsapp lead Bloomberg Intelligence. McCourt, meanwhile, plans to form a consortium to make a bid driven by the goal of transforming the social media landscape. While Frank has assets worth an estimated $1.4 billion — putting him on the Forbes billionaires list for the first time this year — his wealth falls short of TikTok’s estimated worth, and he has already announced plans to raise money from foundations, endowments, pension funds and the general public as part of a plan to shift U.S. users’ accounts to a protocol that gives them more control over their digital data.
Who is Frank McCourt?
This isn't the first time Frank McCourt has ventured into the tech world. After selling the Dodgers in 2012 for more than $2 billion, the businessman has focused on tech initiatives. In 2021, he announced the launch of Project Liberty , an initiative that aims to create a safer social media environment. Since then, McCourt has invested around $500 million in the project.
As the billionaire has pointed out in an interview, his main goal is not the TikTok algorithm , but to create a website where users can have control over their data and identity. To do this, it would be necessary to introduce a new open-source protocol on TikTok that offers American users more control over their own information. For its part, the project already has the support of big names in the sector such as Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web (WWW).
While McCourt has his vision well planned, there are several challenges and obstacles he will have to overcome before he can achieve his goal, starting with ByteDance's reluctance to sell the platform.