Shaquille O’Neal Dragged Into $50 Billion TikTok US Sale as Potential Buyer Against Elon Musk & More

If Shaquille O’Neal wants to keep making crazy lipsync videos and testing his limits to blend in music festivals, he better act soon. TikTok is in a crisis. And diehards are praying this won’t be another Twitter/X situation. A very concerned funnyman is calling upon the social media savvy multi-preneur to rescue the platform. Maybe make some sacrifices along the way too. After all, Adam Silver just hyped Shaq as an early adopter of tech and he’s been responsible for making certain platforms popular.

TikTok could effectively be banned this Sunday unless someone with a big bank account buys it. After taking over the erstwhile Twitter, Elon Musk is one of the potential buyers. Shark Tank’s Mr Wonderful Kevin O’Leary, former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, and YouTube legend, Mr Beast are the other names. Maybe barring Mr Wonderful, the frontrunners are not appealing to the TikTok generation.

Jordan Klepper addressed it on The Daily Show. The comedian is more than peeved about TikTok coming under someone who doesn’t understand the platform. “Can’t there be one, cool potential buyer?” Was the rhetoric question, then he turned to the camera like Jim on The Office and directly called out who that question was meant for.

“Shaquille O’Neal, I’m talking to you. Stop buying so many Papa John’s franchises and get real about your investment future.” You heard him, Shaq.

A little correction though. Shaq’s not buying up Papa John’s franchises. He already has a few and is a brand ambassador who brings back the Shaq-A-Roni seasonally. He recently stepped down from the Papa John’s board too.

Klepper gets that comedic license but the idea of Shaq owning TikTok sounds nice. For good reason too.

Shaquille O’Neal’s smart tech moves

Shaquille O’Neal is only a year younger than Elon Musk but Big Diesel totally appeals to that audience. He’s recently taken to ‘dad jokes’ he’s posting across YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and TikTok. He recaps his EDM performances in short form videos on every platform and posts his other funny skits on them.

Other than being a natural entertainer, O’Neal is smart about putting his money on their potential value. Adam Silver highlighted the big man’s knack when he appeared on The Big Podcast this week. “I don’t think Shaq gets enough credit for… he was an early adopter in terms of technology,” he said and credited Shaq’s whimsical move for creating NBA Twitterverse. Eventually, more users signed up after Shaq before Elon Musk bought it in 2022.

Shaq’s was one of the earliest investors in Google too in the late ’90s. He himself didn’t realize what a goldmine it was until he saw how much his money had grown. He similarly invested in the Shark Tank reject, Ring Doorbell right before Amazon bought it.

If $500 million rich O’Neal wants to buy TikTok, he’d have to shell out around $40 to $50 billion. He very rarely declares his business moves beforehand (like suddenly returning to Reebok in 2023). But if Shaq bought TikTok, it would the destination for Dad Jokes.