Donald Trump has implied that Microsoft is in discussions with Tactoku and he is hoping for a bidding war on apps.
In response to whether Microsoft was considering acquiring an app, the US President stated, “I will say Jesus,” and added, “I have a lot of interest in Tiktok. Tactoku is of great interest.”
Microsoft, Tiktok, and Bytedance did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comments outside of regular business hours following the US President’s remarks on Air Force 1 on Monday.
The reported remarks mark the second attempt to acquire Tiktok. During his first term, Trump had ordered Tactoku to divest its US operations citing national security concerns.
Microsoft emerged as a top bidder in 2020, but the negotiations quickly fell apart, and Trump’s push for the sale ended a few months later.
Tactoku, with approximately 170 million American users, faced an injunction from the Chinese owners to either comply with national security measures or face a ban on January 19. Shortly before this, the app was temporarily taken offline earlier this month.
Upon taking office on January 20, Trump signed a presidential order to delay the enforcement of the injunction by 75 days.
Last week, Trump revealed that he had discussed the purchase of Tactoku with multiple parties and would likely make a decision on the fate of the popular app within 30 days.
The US President had previously stated that he would be open to a sale of the Social Media App to the CEO of Tesla if interested, although Elon Musk has not publicly responded to Trump’s offer.
Recently, on Sunday, AI startup Perplexity AI proposed a merger with Tiktok. The US government informed Reuters on Sunday that it had invested in the future of the new company.
In 2021, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described Tiktok as “the oddest thing I’ve worked on.”
He mentioned to the US government, “There are specific requirements and then just disappear.”
Source: www.theguardian.com
