TikTok

What MrBeast said as Elon Musk pulls out of buying TikTok

TikTok ban: VP JD Vance appointed to handle negotiations
Fox - 26 Houston / VideoElephant

Elon Musk has said he has no interest in buying TikTok and MrBeast has had his say on the richest man in the world pulling out of the running.

TikTok cut out in the US on January 19 following a federal ban by the Supreme Court which required parent company ByteDance to sell its US version of the platform due to national security concerns over TikTok's links to China - despite TikTok's repeated denials it shares information with the country.

Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on January 20 and one of his first acts was to sign an executive order to lift the ban (which he initially backed for years as previously mentioned), giving ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, more time to sell up.

Vice-president JD Vance has since been appointed to oversee the TikTok sale and prospective buyers have until April 5 when the ban becomes reinstated and permanent.

While ByteDance has previously denied TikTok is up for sale, there are a few interested parties in the purchase if it eventually does.

A composite image of MrBeast and Elon MuskMrBeast has reacted to Elon Musk officially declaring he has no interest in buying TikTok / Composite image from Jon Kopaloff, Getty Images for Prime Video & Kevin Lamarque, Pool/Getty Images

One of those was Trump's right-hand man Musk, admittedly after Trump himself said he would be "open" to the tech billionaire buying it, but Musk has now confirmed he's not interested.

Reuters reports Musk said: "I have not put in a bid for TikTok. I don't have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok. I'm not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok, I do not acquire companies in general, it's quite rare."

And MrBeast, another party interested in the purchase, reacted to this on social media.

He replied to a Tweet and simply said: "Phew."

On January 21, the Paul Hastings Law Firm shared a blog post that said it is advising a "syndicate of investors" including MrBeast in an all-cash offer for TikTok's US operations and "various assets" from ByteDance.

MrBeast has since been very vocal in his intention to buy the company. The other interested party is Oracle founder, chair and chief technical officer Larry Ellison.

But as previously mentioned, ByteDance has previously said TikTok is not for sale.

Elsewhere, streamer Adin Ross has responded to a request from Kanye West's X / Twitter account about doing an interview together and Sony has revealed exactly why PlayStation Network (PSN) went down for 24 hours on February 8.

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