Elon Musk Shuts Down TikTok Buyout Rumors, Says He Prefers To Build Companies From Scratch: 'I Rarely Acquire Companies'

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), has publicly dismissed the idea of acquiring the widely-used short-video app, TikTok. On Jan. 19, the U.S. President, Donald Trump signed an executive order to postpone the enforcement of a ban on the Chinese short-video app.

What Happened: Musk’s comments were made in late January and released online by The WELT Group, a division of German media company Axel Springer SE, on Saturday. Musk joined a summit hosted by the group via video, where he stated, “I have not put in a bid for TikTok.”