PIERRE, SD (KELO.com) — “TikTok wants to do what? They want to do it where?” Governor Larry Rhoden is as surprised as anyone else, but South Dakota appears to be in the running to become home to the social media behemoth. But, there are a lot of ‘ifs’ involved. TikTok will have to be sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance or be banned in the U.S. market because of concerns over privacy and national security. So far there hasn’t been a deal completed for the sale, but one of the bidders reached out to the Governor about the possibility of locating in the state.
Rasner Media of Wyoming has made a 45-billion dollar offer for TikTok. CEO Reid Rasner says South Dakota has been a strategic partner in his efforts. Governor Rhoden has endorsed the Rasner Media bid, along with the leaders of the South Dakota Retailers Association and the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce. Governor Rhoden says the Rasner group contacted him for a meeting to discuss the location of the headquarters in the event their bid is accepted.
The Governor calls that a bit of poetic justice. South Dakota was the first state to ban the use of TikTok on state government devices when former Governor Kristi Noem was in office. To now be in discussions as the location for the company – as remote as that possibility might be – has a level of irony that amazes the Governor. “I was kind of blown away about how receptive they were about the concept of coming to South Dakota. They reached out to us and had nothing but good to say about South Dakota.”
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