Project Liberty’s bid for TikTok just got a little more social media savvy with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian joining as a strategic adviser.
“He has that broad portfolio of experience… of where social media was and, I think, a keen understanding of where it’s evolving,” former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt told Reuters on Monday. “Where he can help mostly is validating but also socializing what we’re doing.”
“On the one hand, this is a project which has very sophisticated technology at the core, and so you’re dealing with a very specific audience when it comes to demonstrating the validity of that technology and in how it works and why it’s necessary,” he added. “And then you have a totally different constituency, which is basically non-technologists, who are impacted by this technology more than they realize.”
Ohanian further noted his excitement to join the team, specifically telling the outlet of his desire to give people better control over their personal data.
Serena Williams’ husband famously co-founded Reddit in 2005, left in 2009, and then came back in 2014 as full-time executive chairman before leaving again in 2020. He has also invested in other notable start-ups such as Instacart, Patreon, OpenSea, Initialized Capital and 776.
McCourt, meanwhile, first announced his plans to purchase TikTok’s American assets back in May. He added in December that he does not intend to be CEO if his plan succeeds. Per Axios, Project Liberty’s various investors have pooled at least $20 billion of capital to take over TikTok — although the bid itself could wind up being far below that number.
The People’s Bid, as they call it, is also supported by MrBeast, Kevin O’Leary, Tim Berners-Lee and Guggenheim Securities, just to name a few.
President Donald Trump has given parent company ByteDance a 75-day extension to sell TikTok’s U.S. assets following its initial ban date of Jan. 19. It went dark on Jan. 18, but was activated less than 24 hours later for users who had the app on their phones; TikTok was later reinstated to the Apple and Google app stores on Feb. 13.
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