Microsoft says it is still discussing the acquisition of TikTok, days after President Donald Trump announced that it would ban the operation of the popular short video app in the United States.
In a blog post Sunday, Microsoft said its CEO, Satya Nadella, had discussed with Trump the acquisition of the app, which belongs to the Chinese company ByteDance. U.S. policymakers have for weeks expressed implementation considerations as tensions between the United States and China rise, and many say it may pose a threat to national security.
“[Microsoft] is committed to winning the TikTok theme for a comprehensive security review and providing a proper economy to the United States, adding the U.S. Treasury,” the company said, adding that it would “move quickly” to talk to ByteDance “in a matter of weeks.
“During this process, Microsoft hopes to continue the discussion with the U.S. government, with the president,” the corporation added.
The Washington-based company’s blog suggests that TikTok may simply be the ban Trump threatened Friday night, when he said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order to prevent law enforcement from operating in the United States. Microsoft’s comments also come after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company’s conversations with ByteDance had been suspended after Trump’s comments.
An agreement would create a new design in which Microsoft would own and operate TikTok in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. As a component of the agreement, Microsoft said it would ensure that all personal knowledge of U.S. TikTok users would be ensured. Transfer and remain in the United States.
TikTok has noted in the past that its user knowledge in the United States is already stored on U.S.-based servers and subsidized in Singapore, and is not subject to Chinese law as feared by some U.S. officials.
“This new design would be based on the delight TikTok users love lately, while adding world-class security, privacy, and virtual security protections,” Microsoft said. “The commercial style of the service would be designed to be transparent to users and adequate security oversight through the governments of those countries.”
The corporation added that “in any case” it would speak to ByteDance until September 15.
ByteDance did not promptly respond to a request for comment about microsoft’s publication. But the company said on a Sunday in Toutiao, the Chinese social media site it owns, that “at all times it has pledged to adapt to a global company.”
“In this process, we face all kinds of complexities and difficulties,” the corporate added. He cited a “tense foreign political environment,” among other issues.
“But we still adhere to the vision of globalization and continue to increase investment in markets around the world, adding China, to create prices for users around the world,” ByteDance said. “We strictly respect local law and will actively use the rights granted to us by law on the legal rights of the company.”
TikTok did not promptly respond to a request for comment on Sunday night, however, a spokesperson for TikTok told CNN Business on Saturday that he was “confident in the long-term success” of the app. The company has leased about 1,000 more people for its U.S. team this year and plans to rent to another 10,000 workers across the United States, the spokesman said. It also recently announced a “Creators Fund” to attract the most productive ability to create content for the app.
Meanwhile, Beijing lashed out at Washington after Trump issued a ban.
“The United States has extended the concept of national security, without any evidence, and on the basis of the presumption of guilt. It threatens certain businesses,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Monday. “China strongly opposes this.”
TikTok may be the “right spouse at the right time” for Microsoft, according to Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, who has set the app’s valuation at about $50 billion. (However, he added that the price of TikTok could be particularly affected if it were closed).
Ives added that if the sale were successful, Microsoft would also get a “crown jewel” from social media at a time when pairs of generations like Facebook and Google Parent Alphabet are subject to regulatory review, making it difficult for them to access Tiktok.
– Shawn Deng, Jill Disis and Isaac Yee contributed to this report.
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