Microsoft is considering buying TikTok: What is known
Trump announces a possible deal between Microsoft and TikTok (photo: Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump said that Microsoft is in talks to buy TikTok and noted that he would like to see a "bidding war" for the sale of the social networking app, reports BBC.
When asked by journalists whether the American tech giant was preparing an acquisition bid, Trump replied: "I would say yes," adding that "a lot of companies are showing a lot of interest in TikTok."
For several years, both Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, have been trying to force TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its US operations for national security reasons.
Postponement of the ban and possible negotiations
This comes after Trump signed an executive order last week to delay the Biden administration's ban on TikTok, which briefly disabled the app for 170 million users in the United States.
Despite granting TikTok a 75-day reprieve, Trump was the first president to put pressure on ByteDance to sell the app.
In August 2020, ByteDance suggested that Microsoft consider buying TikTok, which the American company's CEO later called "the strangest thing ever."
Later, TikTok chose Oracle as a potential partner, but this deal was also not concluded.
Trump has previously said that he is in talks with several parties to buy TikTok and expects to make a decision on the app's future within the next 30 days. A Microsoft spokesperson said that the company has "nothing to report yet."
Who else wanted to buy TikTok
Earlier, billionaire Frank McCourt and Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary, known as an investor in the Shark Tank show (the American equivalent of Dragon's Den), were mentioned among the potential buyers of TikTok.
The world's largest YouTube blogger, Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, also announced his interest in buying TikTok after several investors contacted him about his tweet expressing interest.
We also wrote about possible scenarios if TikTok is acquired by Elon Musk.
