Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick is reportedly interested in buying TikTok
He’s said to have floated the idea to potential partners including OpenAI’s Sam Altman
Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is reportedly interested in acquiring TikTok.
Amid national security concerns, US lawmakers have proposed a bill that would require Chinese tech giant ByteDance to sell the popular video-sharing app within six months or face a domestic ban.
In light of this, Kotick expressed interest in acquiring TikTok to ByteDance executive chair Zhang Yiming, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reports that any sale price would likely be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
During an Allen & Company media finance conference last week, Kotick reportedly floated the idea of partnering to buy TikTok to a group that included Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, which could use the app to help train its AI models.
The US House of Representatives will vote this week on the proposed bill to crackdown on TikTok, Reuters reports.
“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States,” TikTok said last week. “The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
Kotick was CEO of Activision from 1991 until 2008, after which he became CEO of Activision Blizzard in connection with the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games.
While he helped steer Activision Blizzard to great commercial heights, Kotick’s reputation—and that of the company—suffered greatly in recent years following several scandals.
These include allegations that executives intentionally ignored or attempted to downplay reported instances of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Both Kotick and Activision have denied the allegations.
Kotick left Activision Blizzard in December, shortly after Microsoft completed a $69 billion acquisition of the company.
