A Frank McCourt-led investor group has secured over $20 billion in capital commitments to potentially purchase TikTok's U.S. operations, as ByteDance faces a January 19th deadline to sell or shut down the platform in the United States.

The bid is being organized through "The People's Bid for TikTok," with businessman Kevin O'Leary recently joining the effort. O'Leary has merged his TikTok-buyout crowdfunding platform, WonderfulTikTok.com, into the initiative.

Key developments:

• ByteDance maintains it won't sell TikTok under any circumstances
• Supreme Court oral arguments regarding the ban are scheduled for January 10th
• President Biden can extend the forced-sale deadline by up to 90 days
• The investor group is willing to purchase TikTok without its proprietary algorithms

O'Leary emphasized their willingness to proceed without TikTok's algorithms, stating: "We'll buy it without the algorithm. We don't need them. We'll do it ourselves and make TikTok wonderful again."

Potential post-ban scenarios:

• Existing users may retain access temporarily
• Platform updates and marketplace distribution would be restricted
• Users might attempt to access TikTok through VPNs
• Long-term survival would be challenging without regular updates

The outcome largely depends on the Supreme Court's decision and ByteDance's willingness to negotiate, despite their current stance against selling. McCourt expects more serious sales discussions to begin after the Supreme Court ruling.

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