Trump says Microsoft in talks to buy TikTok
2025-01-28
Category: economic

US President Donald Trump has said that Microsoft is in discussions to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a "bidding war" over the sale of the social media app.When asked by reporters whether the US tech giant was preparing a bid, Trump replied: "I would say yes" - before adding that there was "great interest in TikTok" from several companies.Both Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden have been trying for years to force TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its US operations on national security grounds.The BBC has reached out to TikTok and Microsoft for comment.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order to reverse a Biden Administration ban on TikTok that briefly took the app offline for its 170m users in the United States.Despite granting TikTok a 75-day reprieve from the ban, Trump was the first president to start pressuring ByteDance to sell its app.In August 2020, ByteDance approached Microsoft as a possible buyer - something which the US company's chief executive later described as "the strangest thing".Later, TikTok chose rival Oracle as a potential partner - although that deal also never happened.Trump has previously said that he was in discussions with several parties about purchasing TikTok and expects to make a decision on the app's future within the next 30 days.Earlier on Monday, the US president addressed a gathering of Republican politicians in Florida and spoke about the proposed sale of TikTok."We'll see what happens. We're going to have a lot of people bidding on it," he said."If we can save all that voice and all the jobs, and China won't be involved, we don't want China involved, but we'll see what happens," he added.