US President Donald Trump has announced that Microsoft is negotiating the acquisition of the American division of TikTok by ByteDance Ltd.
Written by UNN with reference to Bloomberg.
When asked by journalists whether Microsoft was negotiating to buy TikTok, Trump replied:
I would say yes. There is a lot of interest in TikTok. There is a lot of interest in TikTok
TikTok, a short video app used by more than 170 million Americans, has attracted the attention of many in the US tech industry.
Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity has applied for a merger with TikTok US, and billionaire Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, recently made a formal offer to acquire it.
In 2020, Microsoft and Oracle Corp. had already made a bid for TikTok when the Trump administration pressured ByteDance to sell the US segment of the service or face a ban.
Microsoft has so far declined to comment on possible participation in the deal.Meanwhile, speaking to Republican lawmakers in Florida, Donald Trump hinted at ongoing negotiations over TikTok:
We'll see what happens. We're going to have a lot of people betting on it, and if we can keep all those votes and all those jobs and China doesn't get involved, we don't want China to get involved, but we'll see what happens
To recap
On January 19, in the United States, users could not log into TikTok. US President Donald Trump announced that he is in talks with several interested parties about a possible acquisition of TikTok. A final decision is expected to be made within the next 30 days.