After being touted as a potential buyer earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied interest in acquiring TikTok’s US operations, PCMag reported.
“I have not put in a bid for TikTok,” Musk said at a conference hosted by German Billionaire Mathias Döpfner. He added that he doesn’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” claiming that he doesn’t use and isn’t familiar with the platform.
The X owner added: “I do not require companies in general; it’s quite rare,” calling the 2022 acquisition of the company previously called Twitter (now X) “unusual.”
Under a law signed by President Biden last year, TikTok was ordered to divest its US operation on national security grounds. That was supposed to have been done by Jan. 19, but TikTok fought the ban in court. It lost at all levels, but President Trump — who started the TikTok ban issue himself in 2020 — gave the company a 75-day reprieve when he returned to office.
TechCrunch reported: Elon Musk recently said he is “not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok.”
Musk made those remarks during an interview at the WELT Economic Summit on January 28.
The interview came after President Donald Trump delayed a law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok or see it banned in the United States. At the time, there were reports that the Chinese government was open to a deal in which Musk would require the app.
Trump even told reporter that he’d like to see Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison acquire TikTok; he’s also signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund that could purchase a stake in the app.
But Musk claimed that he wasn’t interested, flatly stating “I have not put in a bid for TikTok.”
“I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” he said in the interview. “I guess I would look at the algorithm and try to decide: How helpful or useful is this algorithm? And what can we do to shift the algorithm to be more productive and ultimately be beneficial to humanity?”
New York Post reported: Elon Musk has no interest in purchasing TikTok’s American business from Chinese Company ByteDance according to new public comments.
In a recently released video interview at the WELT Economic Summit, the DOGE chief said he doesn’t use the app and could not find a motivation to pursue a purchase.
“I have not actually put in a bid for TikTok, I don’t have any plans for what I wold do if I had TikTok,” Musk told the German forum.
Musk went on to say that he does not generally purchase companies and only does so when he can see an altruistic reason.
“I do not acquire companies that’s quite rare. Acquiring Twitter, now called X, was highly unusual. I usually build companies from scratch,” Musk said.
In my opinion, it certainly sounds like Elon Musk doesn’t want to acquire TikTok at this time.