Bobby Kotick
former president of
Activision
Blizzard is reportedly considering a purchase
Tik Tok
The app may be banned in the United States. The Wall Street Journal reported that Kotick spoke to him
ByteDance
the company that owns TikTok, has announced the purchase of the app, which could cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
This comes as US lawmakers introduce a new bill that would make ByteDance sell TikTok within six months or prevent it from being available in US app stores.
President Joe Biden said he would approve the bill if it is approved in Congress.
The Wall Street Journal report adds that Kotick, president
OpenAI
,
Sam Altman
discussed teaming up to buy TikTok at a dinner party last week.
Kotick’s interest in TikTok comes after a difficult end to his 30-year leadership of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft last year. The company faced a lawsuit saying it allowed sexual harassment and discrimination under Kotick’s leadership. The Wall Street Journal also said Kotick was aware of the bad behavior and did not tell the board everything. Kotick was accused of harassment, but Activision Blizzard said the report was “misleading.”
Lawmakers are concerned about data privacy and TikTok’s ties to China. US President Biden, whose administration has already banned the app on state devices, expressed his support for banning the app in the United States. However, former President Donald Trump, who once wanted to ban TikTok, changed his mind, saying a ban would help TikTok’s competitors, such as Facebook and YouTube.
As the bill against TikTok gained support, the app asked its American users to speak up about it, sending messages asking users to contact their representatives. The bill, which was approved by the committee last week, is expected to be approved when the House of Representatives votes on it on Wednesday. If approved, it will then go to the Senate, after which the bill will be signed by the President of the United States. The former Activision boss reportedly wants to buy TikTok
