A billionaire investor keen to buy TikTok's US operations has told the BBC he is left in limbo as the latest deadline to sell the app approaches.
The United States has repeatedly delayed the date by which the platform's Chinese owner, Bytedance, must sell or be blocked for American users.
US President Donald Trump appears set to extend the deadline for the fifth time on Tuesday.
"We're sitting there and waiting to see what happens," investor Frank McCourt told BBC News.
"But if the time comes, we're ready to move forward... we've got the capital together to buy it, we'll see."
The popular short-form video app was to be banned or sold in the United States in January, under a law passed by Congress in 2024.
Lawmakers said at the time that ByteDance's ties to the Chinese government threatened national security and expressed fears that Beijing would force the company to provide data on U.S. users.
It's a concern that TikTok and its owners have always said is unfounded.
The law was signed by President Joe Biden while he was still in office and was upheld by the Supreme Court in early 2025.
Trump and members of his administration have previously claimed that a TikTok deal was reached and received the blessing of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The president also said "sophisticated" U.S. investors would acquire the app, including two of his allies: Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and Michael Dell of Dell Technologies.
Members of the Trump administration had indicated the deal would be formalized during a meeting between Trump and Xi in October - but it came to fruition without a deal being reached.
Neither TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance nor Beijing have since announced their approval of a sale, despite Trump's claims.
This time, there is no indication that the deal is imminent, leading most analysts to conclude that another extension is inevitable.
Without naming the investors selected by Trump, Mr McCourt told the BBC he was concerned "about a concentration of power and influence because platforms like TikTok are very influential".
He is part of a group of investors that includes Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Canadian investor Kevin O'Leary.
"I hope that whatever happens, it gets shut down or sold and lands in the hands of law-abiding people," he said.
He said he wanted to make TikTok work without any of its Chinese technology, including its powerful recommendation algorithm, and that his Liberty project had developed other technology that could be used instead.
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