Casino Mogul Steve Wynn Among Reported Indirect Bidders for TikTok
Wall Street Journal reports that Steve Wynn, the casino mogul and billionaire, has been asked to back a play for TikTok, although he would not be doing so directly. According to the publication, another company, AppLovin, has placed a purchasing bid and has reached out to Wynn, trying to solicit additional funding.
Steve Wynn Not Directly Involved with Any TikTok Bid
The WSJ said that it had reached out to “people familiar with the matter” and could confirm the facts first-hand. TikTok is due to either sell its operations or shut down on April 5, but any likely sale would probably take months after the fact to complete, which means that if a buyer is found, the company is unlikely to shutter operations and disrupt the video-sharing app as happened once before.
There have been numerous bidders already, with Amazon and Oracle both pushing for what could be the most valuable social media app and company in existence. Private equity firms such as Silver Lake and Blackstone have also shown interest, and if anything, OnlyFans’ owner, Tim Stockley, has said that he would be willing to buy TikTok.
Elon Musk, another business major, has demurred on the matter, and has said that he would not be making a bid for the social media platform, perhaps still smarting from the rather costly deal he made for X, formerly Twitter, which began sliding in revenue due to advertisers’ withdrawal from the platform.
Of all the bidders, Amazon is most likely not going to secure the purchase, as per WSJ sources citing the White House. Similarly, though, there has been no favorite for the acquisition of the highly-valuable asset.
The White House Places Itself as Ultimate Curator of Final Buyer
TikTok is not just a phenomenon in itself. Its algorithm is touted to have unprecedented powers of inference and can tailor and personalize content like no other algorithm on the market. Anyone purchasing TikTok would mostly benefit from access to this information, although it’s not clear whether the algorithm IP will be sold together with the platform.
President Donald Trump and his new cabinet have been pushing for TikTok to sell to an American investor, touting the deal as “great” for both sides. As to Steve Wynn’s involvement, the businessman has not commented publicly on whether he would be backing AppLovin bid and whether he would be at all interested in pursuing this.
One thing is certain, though – the deadline is fast approaching and there is still no buyer. One other possible candidate could be Kick, the streaming platform backed by Stake, a global crypto casino major.
