No, the D’Amelios are not buying TikTok

Turns out Marc D’Amelio isn’t buying TikTok after all.

Back in March, the father of TikTok stars Charli and Dixie D’Amelio said that, due to TikTok’s continuing struggles with the U.S. government over its Beijing-based owner, ByteDance, he would put together a group of (presumably American) investors for a joint bid to buy the platform.

But those plans have fizzled, D’Amelio said onstage The Information’s Creator Economy Summit this week.

“It’s very expensive,” D’Amelio told

Information reporter Kaya Yurieff. He went on to say that the family has “raised a lot of money for D’Amelio Brands” (at least $6 million, to be exact) and that it does “[have] the connections” to raise money for a TikTok buy.

He didn’t say why, with all those connections and all that money apparently at his beck and call, he opted not to offer up a bid. We’re guessing it has something to do with the tremendous effort–across all areas, legal and legislative and otherwise–it would take to seal ownership. Not mention D’Amelio would have to convince ByteDance to sell TikTok, which it last valued at $220 billion.