Trump says Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok
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President Donald Trump previously said he was in discussions with several parties about purchasing TikTok.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump told reporters on Jan 27 that Microsoft 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 ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for a comment outside regular business hours.
TikTok, which has about 170 million American users, was briefly taken offline
Mr Trump, after taking office on Jan 20, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law.
Mr Trump said last week that he was in talks with multiple people over buying TikTok
He has previously said that he was open to billionaire Elon Musk buying the social media app if the Tesla chief executive wanted to do so.
Mr Musk, however, has not publicly commented on Mr Trump’s offer.
More recently, AI start-up Perplexity AI on Jan 26 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.
The reported talks mark the second time that Microsoft has been in the frame to acquire TikTok.
During his first term, Mr 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 Mr Trump’s divestment push ended a few months later when he left office.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called the deal the “strangest thing I’ve ever worked on”.
The US government had a “particular set of requirements, and then it just disappeared”, he said in 2021. REUTERS
