Microsoft in talks to buy TikTok to save service from ban in US
US President Donald Trump is planning to announce a decision that would require Chinese company ByteDance to divest the popular short video service TikTok in favor of a US company. This is reported by Bloomberg, citing its own sources.
It also became known that Microsoft could become a possible buyer of TikTok. The New York Times, citing a source familiar with the negotiations, said the software giant is currently in talks to buy TikTok. The same information was confirmed by the Bloomberg news agency. Microsoft officials declined to comment on the matter.
The TikTok service is very popular all over the world, including the United States. As it gained popularity, there has been growing concern from the American authorities who believe that TikTok could be used by the Chinese government to collect information about American citizens. Earlier this month, President Trump announced that he was considering a ban on TikTok in the United States. According to Bloomberg, he intends to sign an executive order, due to which ByteDance will somehow be forced to relinquish control over TikTok.
It is worth noting that TikTok is making a lot of efforts to distance itself from the parent company, trying to convince everyone that user data is not stored on the Chinese servers of the service, and denying its connection with the government of the Celestial Empire. As part of this activity, ByteDance has appointed Kevin Mayer, who previously worked at Walt Disney Co., as TikTok CEO. In addition, previously there was information that ByteDance could sell TikTok to American investors for about $ 50 billion.
