US President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that Microsoft Corp is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app.
Microsoft declined to comment. TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動) did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for a comment outside regular business hours.
TikTok, which has about 170 million US users, was briefly taken offline just before a law requiring ByteDance to either sell it on national security grounds or face a ban took effect on Jan. 19.
Photo: Bloomberg
Trump, after taking office on Jan. 20, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law.
Trump said last week that he was in talks with multiple people over buying TikTok and would likely have a decision on the popular app’s future in 30 days.
The US President has previously said that he was open to billionaire Elon Musk buying the social media app if the Tesla Inc CEO wanted to do so. Musk, however, has not publicly commented.
More recently, artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Perplexity AI on Sunday made a proposal to merge with TikTok, with the US government getting up to half of the new company in future, a source told Reuters on Sunday.
The reported talks mark the second time that Microsoft has been in the frame to acquire TikTok.
During his first term, Trump ordered TikTok to separate its US version from ByteDance, citing national security concerns.
Microsoft emerged as a top bidder in 2020, but the talks soon collapsed, and Trump’s divestment push ended a few months later when he left office.
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