Could a merger of Twitter and TikTok be underway?
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that San Francisco-based Twitter had had initial conversations about a possible mix with TikTok, the popular video-sharing app, which brought others familiar with the topic.
According to the Journal, it is unclear whether Twitter would succeed in an agreement with TikTok, which would face significant challenges.
Twitter and TikTok declined to comment when they were contacted Saturday through USA TODAY. TikTok said he did comment on “market rumors.”
President Donald Trump signed an order Thursday night blocking all U.S. transactions with TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, the administration’s latest move to force the app to share videos to break ties with Beijing.
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The order, which will likely face legal challenges, would prohibit “any transaction through any person or related property, subject of U.S. jurisdiction, With ByteDance Ltd” in an effort to “resolve the national emergency with respect to data and source communications generation chain.”
The president signed a separate executive order banning transactions with Chinese generation giant Tencent, owner of the WeChat app, raising national security concerns.
It asserts that the programs “capture vast data extensions from their users,” which may allow “the Communist Party of China to obtain non-public and exclusive data from Americans.”
Microsoft showed on August 2 that it would continue to negotiate the acquisition of TikTok’s U.S. operations after a verbal exchange between CEO Satya Nadella and Trump.
“Microsoft will act temporarily to continue discussions with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in a few weeks and, in any case, will complete those discussions until September 15, 2020,” Microsoft said in a blog post. “During this process, Microsoft hopes to continue the discussion with the U.S. government, and added with the president.”
The generation giant said its proposed new design would be based on the joy TikTok users love lately, while adding world-class security, privacy, and virtual security protections.
Microsoft said that “would ensure that all personal knowledge of TikTok users in the US. Transfer and remain in the United States. To the extent that this knowledge is recently stored or subsidies outside the United States, Microsoft would ensure that this knowledge is removed from the country’s outdoor servers after it is transferred.”
Trump also said he hoped the U.S. Treasury would get relief in Microsoft’s possible acquisition of TikTok, and said the U.S. had made the deal possible. He did specify what it would look like or whether it has the legal authority to ask the government for payment.
Contribution: Josh Rivera, John Fritze, Jefferson Graham, David Jackson, Savannah Behrmann and Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY
Follow USA TODAY journalist Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko