Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian plans to buy TikTok

YEREVAN, April 4. /ARKA/. Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of the social network Reddit and an American millionaire, is among the contenders wishing to buy the social network TikTok and has already submitted an application.

The Chinese TikTok must be sold to an American company by April 5 in the United States—or it will have to cease operations in the country. As the deadline approaches, the list of those wanting to buy TikTok grows longer, reports the BBC. However, TikTok and its owner, the Chinese company ByteDance, have not yet officially announced whether they agree to sell the U.S. business.

The list of contenders includes a wide variety of firms, ranging from American IT giants to a British entrepreneur dubbed the "king of homemade porn." Among them are Amazon, AppLovin, Tim Stokely, the founder of the British video platform OnlyFans, Perplexity, a startup focused on search powered by artificial intelligence, which is supported by, among others, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Another potential buyer is Frank McCourt, the founder of Project Liberty, an organization that advocates for internet users' rights.

A consortium of American businessmen, including Trump supporter Marc Andreessen and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, as well as Elon Musk and Microsoft, is also interested in this acquisition and has the backing of the Trump administration.

Microsoft had applied to buy TikTok back in 2020, but the proposal was rejected. At that time, during President Trump's first term, his administration considered banning TikTok but never followed through with it.

However, whoever secures the White House's support for acquiring the U.S. arm of TikTok, the BBC writes, will still face the same major problem: how to buy a company that is not for sale?