Microsoft is among candidates to buy TikTok — details

Microsoft is negotiating the acquisition of TikTok, as U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters. He also added that he would like to see a bidding war for the app.

This was reported by Reuters.

What is known about the negotiations on the acquisition of TikTok?

TikTok, which has about 170 million users in the U.S., was blocked before a law went into effect on January 19 that required its parent company, ByteDance, to either sell the app on national security grounds or face an outright ban.

After taking office on January 20, Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a 75-day delay in implementing the law, and last week he said he was in talks with several parties to buy TikTok and that a decision on the app's future would be made within the next 30 days.

Earlier, it was reported that the president would buy Elon Musk's social media app if he was interested, but the billionaire has not publicly commented on the proposal.

Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence startup, has also proposed a merger with TikTok, with the U.S. government receiving up to half of the company in the future.

During his first term, Trump ordered TikTok to separate its U.S. version from ByteDance, citing national security concerns. In 2020, Microsoft emerged as the top bidder, but negotiations soon failed, and Trump's push for the sale ended a few months later when he left office.

Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, called the deal the strangest thing he had ever worked on.

As a reminder, during a speech at the White House, Donald Trump suggested that Elon Musk might buy TikTok. The U.S. president believes that such a deal could be beneficial for everyone.

We also wrote that right before the law banning TikTok in the U.S. came into force, the app had stopped working. It was first noticed by users who lost access to their accounts.