Microsoft is one of multiple companies looking to strike a deal to take ownership of the popular social media app TikTok, according to United States President Donald Trump. Asked on Monday aboard Air Force One if Microsoft was in the mix to make a deal, Trump told reporters, including the AP, “I would say yes.”
In 2020, Microsoft officially announced plans to buy TikTok, which sent the company’s share price surging. Microsoft later abandoned its buyout attempt, with CEO Satya Nadella saying the deal was the “strangest thing I’ve ever worked on.” Now, Microsoft may be back at the negotiating table.
Trump said other companies are in the mix to buy TikTok as well, but he didn’t name them outright. It was previously reported that Activision founder Bobby Kotick was assembling an investment group to buy TikTok. The AI company Perplexity has also discussed a potential deal that would give the US government a 50% ownership stake in TikTok.
“I like bidding wars because you make your best deals,” Trump said.
Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court upheld TikTok’s ban, and the platform briefly went dark. It’s back online, though the app remains unavailable for new users from the App Store and Google Play. Trump recently extended the deadline for TikTok to find a new owner in the US by 75 days, with the deadline now being April 4.
Republicans and Democrats alike have raised concerns about national security over TikTok based on the company’s ownership by a Chinese company, ByteDance. How a potential sale of TikTok might come together remains a mystery, whether it comes as a sale of TikTok’s US operations, the platform entirely, or some other kind of deal beyond a total divestiture by ByteDance.
ByteDance is holding steady and saying over and over that it will not sell.