TikTok has 42 days to finalize a deal with an American buyer — and Wyoming resident Reid Rasner says he has made a “competitive offer.”
Rasner, a 40-year-old businessman, told the Deseret News on Thursday that he is offering more than $47.45 billion to acquire the app and its algorithm and move its headquarters from Singapore to Wyoming.
It would be a lucrative deal for the states in the Mountain West and would give the controversial app a lifeline.
Who is Reid Rasner?
Rasner, a fourth-generation Wyoming native, is the CEO of Omnivest Financial, a wealth management company. He ran against Sen. John Barrasso in the 2024 Senate Republican primary. At the time, he promised to stand against the corporate interests that he said control Washington, D.C., to curb spending and protect veterans.
Rasner did not come close to defeating Barrasso, who was running for his fourth six-year term, garnering 24% to Barasso’s 67%. But he claimed, “This is the closest anyone has come to beating” the incumbent senator. He loaned his campaign more than $1.1 million, and spent nearly all of it, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
During his career as a wealth manager, he has advised Wyoming’s veterans, ranchers, first responders and teachers on ways to secure financial independence and a comfortable retirement, per his campaign website.
On his campaign website, Rasner said he came from humble beginnings and spoke about his job sweeping floors at a local glass factory in Wyoming. He saved up enough money to buy a bike and later took an interest in investing in the stock market. By 16, he was investing his saved-up money. He attended the University of Wyoming where he studied English.
Why does Reid Rasner want to buy TikTok?
In January, TikTok temporarily went dark ahead of its deadline to comply with U.S. law, which required ByteDance to divest from the social media app. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that gave TikTok 75 more days to find an American buyer. Now the time on this extension is running out.
“We’re still in negotiations,” said Rasner. “This is a business deal, and there’s certain things I can’t talk about in communications with TikTok and the negotiations with the White House. … But I can tell you that we haven’t had any negative pushback, and we’re in a really great position to move this thing forward.”
He said the No. 1 reason he is interested in buying the app is to protect U.S. national security.
“The Chinese government’s connection with ByteDance — it is a real threat through data mining, influence, you name it,” Rasner said. “I’ve got the vision to make TikTok safe for Americans. We’re going to store the data on American soil, and we’re going to protect the data right here to the highest levels of standards, and it will be unbreachable.”
Wyoming, Mountain West would reap the benefits
He made the case for Wyoming to be TikTok’s new home, creating a fourth legacy industry in the state, behind renewable and nonrenewable power, agriculture and tourism. It will fuel investments into fiber optic broadband and satellite technology and create jobs, he said.
The Cowboy State has “an abundance of cheap, clean energy” that would allow him to run the servers and storage facilities “for pennies on the dollar.”
He said he also expects other states in the Mountain West to reap the benefits of the relocation of the app, which already has a massive digital footprint of 170 million American users.
“We’ve been working on this for months,” said Rasner. He has “all hands on deck, around the clock” on the deal. He said his engineers are preparing to take on the TikTok interface and algorithm to give American users a “clean break” from China.
Now, it comes down to the final days of negotiations, he said.
Who are other potential buyers for TikTok?
There are other potential buyers, like X owner Elon Musk, content creator Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast on the internet, Canadian investor and star of the reality television show “Shark Tank” Kevin O’Leary, Oracle CEO and cofounder Larry Ellison, and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Microsoft was also in talks to acquire TikTok, Trump confirmed in January.
“There’s a lot of people interested in TikTok and we have a chance of doing something good and we’ll be speaking to China also,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on Wednesday. “It will be great to keep TikTok alive, sell it to somebody that is going to do a great job”
But Rasner said he believes his bid is unique and competitive, and it meets the guidelines and expectations set by the Supreme Court, Congress and the Trump White House.
He hasn’t used TikTok to avoid compromising his data and information but assumes it’s “an amazing product.” Since news got out that Rasner may buy the app, he’s received thousands of emails expressing excitement about the possibility of American ownership. Rasner said hopes to grow the company in the U.S.
For now, he’s in “a very competitive, high risk, high stakes game” with a fast approaching deadline.
This article was originally published by a www.deseret.com . Read the Original article here. .