U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that Microsoft is negotiating the acquisition of Tiktok and he hopes to see a bidding war on the app.
Microsoft declined to comment. Tiktok and Bytedance did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment outside of regular working hours.
Tiktok, which has about 170 million U.S. users, takes effect on January 19 when laws require its Chinese owners to bind to either sell in national security venues or face a ban.
After taking office on January 20, Trump signed an executive order requiring a 75-day delay before the law is enforced.
Trump said last week that he was in talks with multiple people to buy Tiktok and would likely make a decision on the future of popular apps within 30 days.
The U.S. president has previously said that he is willing to buy social media apps from billionaire Elon Musk if the CEO wants to do so. But Musk has not made any public comment on Trump’s proposal.
Recently, AI startup confusion AI has proposed a merger with Tiktok, and the U.S. government has secured half of the new company in the future, a source told Reuters on Sunday.
The reported negotiations mark the second time Microsoft has acquired Tiktok in the framework.
During his first term, Trump ordered Tiktok to separate his American version from the Orcs on national security concerns.
Microsoft became a senior bidder in 2020, but negotiations quickly collapsed, and a few months later, Trump’s divestment push ended.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called it “the weirdest thing I’ve ever done.”
He said in 2021 that the U.S. government had a special set of requirements, and then it disappeared.
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(This story has not been edited by Tech Word News’s staff and is automatically generated from the joint feed.)
