McCourt wants to build a decentralized version of the internet where individual users, rather than tech companies, own the reams of data spawned by their online lives.

The billionaire declined to share details on his sources of financing, but said private equity firms and family offices have reached out.

Businessman Frank McCourt is "open-minded" to keeping TikTok's existing investors, including the founder, involved after any deal to buy the U.S. operations of the Chinese-owned short-form video app,

TikTok is a huge part of American online culture, with millions of users consuming, posting and sharing content every day. But the app’s future in the U.S. is uncertain. If its parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t agree to a sale, TikTok faces a nationwide ban following the passage of a national security law in April.

Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty and other investors have submitted a bid to buy TikTok from China-based ByteDance after a court-ordered divestiture or shutdown.

The popular platform could be banned on Jan. 19 under a federal law, while many parties have expressed interest in buying the asset.

Bill Ford, the CEO of ByteDance shareholder General Atlantic, said Wednesday he was confident that a deal will be reached to ensure TikTok stays online in the US — and suggested there may be

A board member at TikTok’s parent company said that a deal to save the app from disappearing in the United States will be done soon.

U.S. businessman Frank McCourt is open to teaming up with other buyers on a bid to take over the U.S. operations of TikTok as long as he can maintain control of the asset, he told Reuters at the Davos event on Thursday.

Frank McCourt said his Project Liberty consortium ... which keeps users hooked on the app. Its unclear if ByteDance will sell TikTok or if China will agree to any kind of sale of the app in ...

Billionaire Frank McCourt says he is open to others joining his bid for U.S. TikTok::"If, as things evolve, there are other financial arrangements, we don't need to own 100 percent of TikTok." // “We met with a number of elected officials on both the House and the Senate side and on both sides of the aisle to just get the pulse of what people are thinking.

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary recently updated his followers about his offer of $20 billion to buy TikTok.