CASPER, Wyo. — Casper businessman and entrepreneur Reid Rasner has made numerous headlines recently after announcing his bid to buy TikTok — the ever-popular social media app that is used by more than a billion active users across the world.
Rasner announced his bid to buy the platform’s American presence in February and now, he says, there’s an active plan on how he wants to do it. And it includes “making TikTok American.”
Rasner’s new website, ‘Founderstok,’ states that it wants to turn TikTok into “The American Social Media Platform,” by giving users the opportunity to buy into the platform itself.
“At Rasner Media, we believe TikTok’s future should be in the hands of its content creators, not foreign governments or corporate elites,” the website states. “That’s why we’ve made an offer to acquire TikTok for $47.45 billion—including its powerful algorithm—to bring it home to the United States. With support from millions of Americans and content creators like you, we can make this a reality.”
That support comes from “building a community of Founders to ensure TikTok’s future is in your hands.”
Interested parties can pledge various amounts of money which, the website states, will not be requested until after Rasner Media acquires TikTok.
“We’re securing this for America,” Rasner told NBC News in February. “We’re securing this for 170 million Americans who are current users, securing their data and making a massive deal of the century.”
Why TikTok Is For Sale
In January, President Donald Trump ordered a 75-day pause on the ban of TikTok; a ban that was enacted due to the platform’s current ownership and the purported “national security risks” that it poses.
In March 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that required the owner of TikTok, a Chinese company called ByteDance, to sell the social media app or be banned in America.
As of this writing, it has yet to be sold. In January, TikTok was, in fact, banned, for less than 24 hours. Trump, in one of his very first acts as president, ordered a pause on the ban until ownership prospects could be discussed.
Rasner said he wants to be the owner and, moreover, he wants American users to have a stake in the platform as well.
The Idea To Buy
On Thursday, Rasner spoke with Oil City News and revealed where the idea to even pursue this venture came from.
“This is months and months in the making,” Rasner said. “A team of investors and I were sitting around and talking about how we could do this. How can we do this for the American people, first and foremost. And how can we make a technological footprint in Wyoming, creating a fourth-legacy industry.”
Rasner said those talks got serious quickly, to the point they started raising the necessary capital through private equity.
“Once we had those commitments secured, we launched,” he said. “Now we’re in a new phase where we have legal counsel — Michael Kendall with Goodwin Procter, out of Boston — which is a tier-one global acquisition law firm.”
Rasner and his team also launched Founderstok, which details Rasner Media’s plan, should it acquire TikTok.
“We will establish TikTok’s new headquarters in Wyoming, creating thousands of jobs and boosting the state’s energy, agriculture, and tourism industries,” the website states.
Rasner confirmed the acquisition would lead to several jobs for Wyoming residents in a variety of sectors.
“We’re going to have high-paying careers for Wyomingites,” Rasner told Oil City News. “That’s a priority of mine — to make sure that Wyomingites are taken care of, that Wyoming is taken care of. We really want to create a technological footprint in the mountain states here.”
‘Buy’ Into TikTok
Wyomingites, and Americans in general, have the chance to “buy into” the Americanized TikTok which, Rasner said, would give creators the opportunity to cater their content towards specific audiences.
“There are 170 million [American] users currently on the platform,” Rasner said. “A lot of them are right here in Wyoming, actually. They run their small businesses, sell goods and services, and they rely on TikTok to do it. So we want to continue to make it an even better place for them, giving them control over their algorithm and their content, protecting free speech, and truly making it a space they can thrive in.”
Those interested in supporting the venture could pledge $12,000 per year, $5,000 per year, or $280 per year. Pledging $12,000 earns supporters the title of “Founding Father,” while those who pledge $5,999 per year are called a “Minuteman,” and those who spend $280 per year are called “Patriots.”
The website notes that no payments will be requested until after Rasner Media acquires TikTok.
User Data and Privacy
Given that the entire sale of TikTok is based on the idea of Chinese business owners having access to Americans’ data and personal information, Rasner made it a point to say that users’ information will be protected.
According to the website’s Privacy Policy page, Rasner Media uses user information to operate their own services, including:
- Provide, operate, maintain, secure and improve our services.
- Provide information about our services.
- Communicate with you about our services, including by sending you announcements, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages.
- To market, grow and expand our services, including by working with other partners to do so.
- Respond to your requests, questions and feedback.
Rasner Media, which became a legal business entity in Wyoming on Feb. 17, 2025, will also use information for marketing and advertising purposes, research and development, and compliance and protection. It will share personal information with service providers, authorities and others, for business transfers, with affiliates, and with business partners.
“We may share personal information with our current and future affiliates, meaning an entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with us.,” the page states. “Our affiliates may use the personal information we share in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy. Subject to your right to opt-out, we may share or sell personal information with our business partners, including for joint marketing purposes with such parties.”
Rasner noted the plan to “Make TikTok American,” comes from buying the platform’s American algorithm, to ensure it can still exist in the United States. When users buy into the platform, they’re buying the benefit of more eyes on their content.
“If you’re an enterprise, or a small business, or even just a content creator, and you want that verification check mark, and you want your content pushed out and you want to control who you’re pushing that content out to, you’ll be able to do that,” Rasner said. “Or, if you just want your free account, you can create and you can grow on the platform in a safe, reliable way where your speech is protected under the First Amendment. Your data is protected. And it’s just an amazing experience for everybody. We would be buying the American company of TikTok and the algorithm that goes with it.”
The Variables
There are many variables that go along with this ever-evolving story. Currently, ByteDance has not publicly acknowledged that it even wants to sell TikTok. The deadline for a decision is April 4, but the pause on the ban could be extended for as long as the government chooses.
If ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, does decide to sell, there are several different avenues that could be gone down, and countless companies that could make their own bids.
As of now, Rasner Media is just the most vocal bid, but a lot could change in the next month, before the deadline is reached.
Still, Rasner said he’s excited by the possibility to acquire TikTok and, despite what naysayers might say, he’s serious about the possibility.
Publicity stunt?
Rasner is known to Casper residents as the CEO and founder of Omnivest Financial, a local wealth management firm. Rasner also attempted to unseat Sen. John Barrasso as one of two of Wyoming’s United States senators. Rasner was unsuccessful in his bid to defeat Barrasso, and he told Oil City News he currently has no plans to get back into politics.
“I own Omnivest Financial,” Rasner said. “I just happened to run for office, but I’m not running for office and I have no plans to. We’re completely focused on this [acquisition] right now.”
Rasner promises that more information and more announcements will continue to be revealed in the coming weeks. He said he’s excited by the prospect, and that Wyoming residents should be excited by it as well.
“Get excited,” Rasner said. “We’re going to bring TikTok headquarters right here to Wyoming. This is going to be massive, not only for Wyoming, but for America as we move forward. It’s a very special time for Wyoming, as we create a fourth-legacy industry in this state, that’s going to affect the surrounding states, too. It’s a very amazing time.”
Does Rasner think that ByteDance will entertain his bid?
“I’m more than confident,” he said. “As soon as ByteDance accepts our engagement and we begin due diligence — we’ll have six months of due diligence and we already have engineers working on the background to make that happen. So we’ll be able to take over on day one. There will be a clean break from ByteDance and China and I’m very confident that will happen, and it will happen very quickly for us.”
Related
This article was originally published by a oilcity.news . Read the Original article here. .