It’s the twist of events we never saw coming. One of the most controversial CEOs in the history of video games, due to multiple controversies under his leadership, now wants to buy the world’s most powerful social network.
Bobby Kotick, the former CEO of Activision Blizzard who left his position at the end of last year, seems to be interested in buying TikTok, as a new bill in the US threatens to ban the app or force its sale.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Kotick mentioned the idea of partnering in such a purchase to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other people sitting with him at a conference dinner last week, and he raised it with ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming.
If TikTok is sold, it is likely to be for hundreds of billions of dollars
Kotick’s alleged interest in TikTok comes at a tumultuous time for the hugely popular platform, after lawmakers introduced the “Law to protect Americans from apps controlled by foreign adversaries” last week, which President Biden said he would sign if approved.
According to this law, which will be voted on in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, ByteDance, the Chinese-based parent company of TikTok, would have to sell the application within six months. Otherwise, it would be banned from US app stores.
TikTok has been trying to get its millions of American users to join its cause following the sudden push of the bill, and last week it sent push notifications asking users to call their representatives.
After the vote in the House of Representatives, where it is expected to be unanimously approved last week in the Energy and Commerce Committee, the bill will move to the Senate.
The newspaper points out that involving Altman in its purchase could open up the possibility of the application being used by OpenAI to train its AI models, which also doesn’t sound ideal for users.
