Trump Reveals Microsoft in Negotiations to Acquire TikTok
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that Microsoft is in discussions to purchase TikTok, expressing a desire to see competitive bidding for the popular social media platform. Microsoft has not provided any comments regarding the talks, and inquiries sent to TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, went unanswered outside normal business hours.
With approximately 170 million American users, TikTok faced a temporary offline situation right before a law was set to mandate its Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the app or face a ban due to national security concerns that were effective starting January 19. After taking office, Trump signed an executive order, extending the enforcement of this law by 75 days.
The President indicated that discussions over TikTok’s future could conclude within 30 days. He previously mentioned that he was willing to consider other notable figures, including billionaire Elon Musk, if he also expressed interest in acquiring the app, although Musk has not commented on the matter.
In another development, AI startup Perplexity AI has proposed merging with TikTok, suggesting that the U.S. government could gain as much as half of the new company. This scenario comes as Microsoft previously sought to acquire TikTok back in 2020, driven by national security apprehensions. However, those negotiations failed and ended when Trump left office, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella referring to the process as “the strangest thing I’ve ever worked on.”
