Billionaire Frank McCourt says he’s putting together a consortium to buy TikTok

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Billionaire businessman and real estate mogul Frank McCourt said Wednesday that he’s putting together a consortium to purchase TikTok’s U.S. business, adding to the number of investors hoping to benefit from a new federal law that requires TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the popular platform or face a ban.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/05/2024 (881 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Billionaire businessman and real estate mogul Frank McCourt said Wednesday that he’s putting together a consortium to purchase TikTok’s U.S. business, adding to the number of investors hoping to benefit from a new federal law that requires TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the popular platform or face a ban.

McCourt is organizing the bid in consultation with the investment bank Guggenheim Securities and “with the goal of placing people and data empowerment at the center of the platform’s design and purpose,” according to an announcement on the website of his Project Liberty initiative.

If a sale occurs, the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers said he would plan to restructure TikTok and give more agency to people “over their digital identities and data” by migrating the platform to an open-source protocol that allows for more transparency.

FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2016 file photo, U.S. businessman Frank McCourt looks on during the French League One soccer match between PSG and Marseille at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2016 file photo, U.S. businessman Frank McCourt looks on during the French League One soccer match between PSG and Marseille at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

McCourt said he doesn’t use TikTok personally, but his businesses and internet-focused initiative do. The bid is an extension of his long-running interest in remaking the internet with better data privacy protections, an effort he’s focused on through Project Liberty. He founded the project “to build a new digital civic architecture for a safer, healthier internet,” according to the organization’s website.

So far, his vision to remake TikTok has received the backing of Jonathan Haidt, a well-known social psychologist whose recent book “The Anxious Generation” focuses on how smartphones and social media have contributed to a mental health crisis among young people.

“We thought this was a really fantastic opportunity to accelerate the creation of an alternative internet,” McCourt told The Associated Press in an interview.

Other investors, including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have expressed a desire to purchase TikTok. However, parent company ByteDance has already said it does not plan to sell the platform. Some experts have also noted the Chinese government is also unlikely to approve a sale – especially not one that includes the recommendation engine that powers the videos that populates users’ feeds.

McCourt said he’s not interested in TikTok’s current algorithm because “top-down” recommendation engines conflict with his view of how such platforms should be managed. He also thinks ByteDance will sell TikTok’s U.S. business at some point.

For now, though, the company has been fighting back against the law passed last month, which would disrupt one of its most lucrative markets.

Last week, ByteDance and TikTok filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government to block the law from going into effect. On Tuesday, eight TikTok creators filed their own challenge, arguing the law violates their First Amendment rights to free speech.

The company also has been waging a legal battle in Montana to block a state law that would ban the video-sharing platform.

On Tuesday, TikTok, Montana users and the state of Montana agreed to put a stay on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Montana’s first-in-the-nation ban while the federal lawsuits are decided.

Montana’s law, which was temporarily blocked before it could take effect on Jan. 1, would be nullified if a company that is not based in a country designated as a foreign adversary acquires TikTok.

McCourt is worth $1.4 billion, according to Forbes. He sold the Dodgers for $2 billion in 2012 to Guggenheim Baseball Management. In 2016, he bought the French soccer club Marseille.

___

Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed reporting.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Puerto Vallarta boards up as Hurricane Simon hits Category 4 strength

The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Puerto Vallarta boards up as Hurricane Simon hits Category 4 strength

The Associated Press 3 minute read Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (AP) — Simon has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it barrels toward Mexico’s coast.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Saturday that Simon’s maximum sustained winds increased to 150 mph (240 kph). A storm of that strength or greater is considered a major hurricane.

The center said it expected Simon “to be near or just inland” of Mexico's west-central coast on Sunday. The hurricane could bring as much as 10 to 20 inches (25-50 cm) of rain over parts of southwestern Mexico, with some areas in the states of Michoacan, Colima and Jalisco receiving up to 30 inches (76 centimeters).

“This rainfall will produce life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain,” the center warned in a bulletin that also urged residents to take immediate action to prepare as tropical-storm conditions were expected to arrive Saturday afternoon.

Read
Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026

What's open, what's closed, what's up on Thanksgiving

Free Press staff 3 minute read Preview

What's open, what's closed, what's up on Thanksgiving

Free Press staff 3 minute read Friday, Oct. 9, 2026

Here's a round-up of things to do and hours of business for services on Thanksgiving Day 2026.

Read
Friday, Oct. 9, 2026

Chopped trees will leave a ‘blight’ on Windsor Park

Kelly-Anne Riess 3 minute read Preview

Chopped trees will leave a ‘blight’ on Windsor Park

Kelly-Anne Riess 3 minute read Friday, Oct. 9, 2026

Robert Gordon has watched the trees grow along a popular Windsor Park walking path for nearly six decades.

Now, as Manitoba Hydro cuts them down to protect nearby power lines, he says a familiar part of his childhood neighbourhood is disappearing.

Although he no longer lives in the area, Gordon regularly returns to walk or cycle along the tree-lined path, which runs parallel to Archibald Street.

He was concerned when he recently spotted crews clearing vegetation near the entrance to the path, but initially assumed they were removing brush. When he returned, he discovered the clearing had extended farther along the corridor.

Read
Friday, Oct. 9, 2026

Manitoba e-scooter legislation changes set to impose speed limit, age restrictions, sidewalk ban

Matthew Frank 5 minute read Preview

Manitoba e-scooter legislation changes set to impose speed limit, age restrictions, sidewalk ban

Matthew Frank 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:14 PM CDT

People riding e-scooters and other personal electric vehicles in Manitoba will have to strap on a helmet, stay off sidewalks and follow new age limits once new provincial rules for the devices take effect next year.

The vehicles, which also include electric skateboards, hoverboards and unicycles, will fall under The Highway Traffic Act starting in 2027, according to the province’s website. E-bikes are excluded from the new rules, according to the province’s frequently-asked-questions page.

All riders must be at least 16 years old and wear properly fitting helmets — that goes for passengers, too, the province said.

The proposed new legislation sets a speed limit of 25 km/h and would prohibit personal electric vehicles from sidewalks unless signs specifically allow sidewalk use. Riders would be using shared paths or roads with speed limits of 50 km/hr or less. They won’t be allowed to operate the vehicles under the influence of alcohol or drugs and they must use hand signals and obey traffic signs.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 5:14 PM CDT

Hurricane Simon pounds resorts and vulnerable towns along Mexico’s Pacific coast

Fernando Llano And Martin Silva, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Hurricane Simon pounds resorts and vulnerable towns along Mexico’s Pacific coast

Fernando Llano And Martin Silva, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: 2:38 AM CDT

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Simon pounded Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 3 storm on Sunday, its eye remaining just offshore as its most powerful winds and rain slammed people living between the Sierra Madre and the ocean.

The hurricane's center swirled parallel to the coast, closing in on the Puerto Vallarta area, where its most damaging winds and rain were expected to hit around midnight and continue through Monday morning. Its maximum sustained winds weakened late Sunday to 115 mph (185 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, but it was still expected to remain a dangerous hurricane.

That’s not good news for people in and around Puerto Vallarta, a popular tourist destination in the state of Jalisco. Just inland and uphill from the resort areas, many Mexicans live in communities where housing might not stand up to the storm.

By late Sunday, Simon's eye was moving northwest about 45 miles (75 kilometers) south of Cabo Corrientes at about 5 mph (7 kph). A senior hurricane center specialist, Philippe Papin, said this westernmost tip of mainland Mexico is the area most likely to get a direct hit from the system. Cabo Corrientes is at the southern tip of Bahia de Banderas, the wide bay where Puerto Vallarta looks out to the Pacific.

Read
Updated: 2:38 AM CDT

Collaros turns back the clock in crucial win over Stamps

Taylor Allen 7 minute read Preview

Collaros turns back the clock in crucial win over Stamps

Taylor Allen 7 minute read Yesterday at 7:14 PM CDT

It was around this time seven years ago that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers officially became Zach Collaros’s team.

Making his first start in blue and gold after being acquired via trade, Collaros ran backwards to escape a collapsing pocket before rolling to his right and firing a perfect pass to Darvin Adams in the back corner of the south end zone during a home game against the Calgary Stampeders.

The play marked the beginning of the Collaros era in Winnipeg.

And a similar play Saturday night, once again against the Stampeders, served as a reminder that the 38-year-old pivot isn’t done just yet.

Read
Yesterday at 7:14 PM CDT