Kevin O’Leary Says It’s ‘Good News’ That SCOTUS Is Likely To Uphold Law Forcing TikTookay Sale

“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary on Friday said it is “good news” for him that the Supreme Court appears likely to uphold a law that would force the parent company of TikTok to sell its U.S. assets or face a nationwide ban this coming weekend.

O’Leary has joined forces with billionaire Frank McCourt, the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, to buy the U.S. operations of the platform off of ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant that owns it.

All nine Supreme Court justices on Friday appeared skeptical of TikTok’s arguments that the law, which would see TikTok go dark in the U.S. on Jan. 19 unless the platform divests its Chinese ownership, is unconstitutional and runs afoul of the First Amendment.

“Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked.

O’Leary welcomed the court’s approach in an interview with Fox News.

“That’s good news for me actually,” he told the network. “What that means is that the company goes into a binary decision as to whether to let it be shut down midnight on the 19th or engage with a buyer.”

But O’Leary claimed that ultimately any deal on the purchase of TikTok will be up to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“He’s got to decide,” O’Leary said. “All Chinese companies are controlled by him. If you want to be a big boy and you want to play in the international markets, you don’t wipe out shareholder money.”

ByteDance has previously said it has no plans to sell TikTok.

However, O’Leary reiterated that their proposal is “the right path” for TikTok’s business, especially given how the Supreme Court reacted to TikTok’s case Friday.

“We think that ByteDance should seriously consider this because the argument made by their lawyers, I think, fell on deaf ears regarding freedom of speech,” O’Leary said. “We’ll make it very free speech. We’ll make it way better.”

O’Leary is part of the formal bid fronted by McCourt’s Project Liberty, an organization that aims to create a more equitable internet and promote the transition to an open data economy, and its partners to acquire the U.S. assets of TikTok.

“By keeping the platform alive without relying on the current TikTok algorithm and avoiding a ban, millions of Americans can continue to enjoy the platform,” McCourt said in statement.

“We look forward to working with ByteDance, President-elect [Donald] Trump, and the incoming administration to get this deal done,” he added.

McCourt has told The New York Times he estimates the value of TikTok without its algorithm stands at $20 billion.

O’Leary, who spent Sunday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, has previously said he’s discussed his plans to acquire TikTok with the president-elect.