If Mnuchin follows through with a purchase, it’ll be the second high-profile deal he will have marshalled this year, after leading a US$1 billion equity investment in troubled commercial real estate lender New York Community Bancorp. It would also mark his return to a saga that started in 2020, when former President Donald Trump first ordered ByteDance to sell its US assets.
Steven Mnuchin is targeting a purchase of TikTok from its Chinese parent company, a day after House lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill that would ban the wildly popular social media app in the US.
The former US Treasury Secretary has spoken to potential co-investors about acquiring TikTok, he said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday, declining to give any specifics. US lawmakers are pushing for a ban of the app unless its owner ByteDance Ltd. divests it, driven by concerns over Chinese government influence on the American public.
