The ByteDance-owned video platform TikTok saga continues. After being taken down by a Supreme Court ruling, the app was back up hours later with a message thanking President Donald Trump. On January 27th, Trump told reporters that Microsoft is in talks to buy the app, solving its legal woes.
The Supreme Court argued TikTok’s current owner ByteDance provided user data to the Chinese government, and/or has a direct influence on the content users see. Because of this, Chinese-owned ByteDance must sell the platform to a US-based company, or cease the operation of TikTok in the United States. Opposition to the ban cites a failure to provide evidence the app had done this. (It’s worth mentioning that this information, if it exists, would be classified, and unable to be shared publicly.)
When asked by reporters if Microsoft was one of the companies in talks to buy the video-sharing app, Trump responded, “I would say yes.” Adding that there has been “a lot of interest in TikTok.” The President signed an executive order on his first day in office halting the enforcement of the Supreme Court ruling for 75 days. So, if TikTok is not acquired soon, it will face another US ban in under three months.
“I like bidding wars because you make your best deal,” Trump said. “So if there’s a bidding war, that’s a good thing.” The problem is bidding wars can take a lot of time, time that TikTok doesn’t have.
Other Possible Buyers
He also wants the US to own 50% of the platform. Possibly referring to a potential acquisition by Perplexity AI, who submitted an updated proposal to merge with TikTok earlier this week. This proposal would allow the US government a 50% stake in the new company after its public launch.
Several buyers have already been rumored including founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison. Bloomberg claimed Elon Musk was in the running, but ByteDance has denied this. This is probably for the best considering how well Musk buying Twitter, now X, went. There was a $20 billion cash offer made by Frank McCourt, former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Kevin O’Leary from “Shark Tank” right before the ban. But this seems to have fizzled out.
The Chinese government indicated it would “firmly oppose” any forced sale of the platform. “When it comes to actions such as the operation and acquisition of business, we believe they should be independently decided by companies in accordance with market principles,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters when asked what a deal between China and Trump would look like.
We’ll keep you posted on updates about the future of TikTok as the situation develops.
