US President Donald Trump has stated that Microsoft is negotiating to buy TikTok and that he would like to see a ‘bidding war’ for the social media platform.
Responding to inquiries about whether the US tech giant was planning to make an offer, Trump affirmed, “I would say yes,” and noted that there was “great interest in TikTok” from multiple companies.
Both Trump and former President Joe Biden have spent years attempting to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest its US operations, citing national security concerns.
This development follows Trump’s issuance of an executive order last week, which temporarily halted a Biden Administration ban on TikTok, briefly disrupting service for its 170 million US users.
Although he granted TikTok a 75-day reprieve from the ban, Trump was the first president to exert pressure on ByteDance to sell the app.
In August 2020, ByteDance considered Microsoft as a prospective purchaser, a move later described by the CEO of the US company as “the strangest thing.”
Subsequently, TikTok turned to Oracle as another potential partner, though this agreement also failed to materialize.
Trump has previously disclosed that he was negotiating with various entities regarding TikTok’s purchase and anticipated making a decision on the app’s fate within the next 30 days.
A Microsoft spokesperson reported that the company had “nothing to share at this time.”
Earlier that day, the US president addressed a group of Republican politicians in Florida, discussing the potential sale of TikTok.
“We’ll see what happens. We’re going to have a lot of people bidding on it,” he stated.
“If we can save all that voice and all the jobs, and keep China out of it, we don’t want China involved, but we’ll see what happens,” he added.
Previously, potential buyers for TikTok included billionaire Frank McCourt and Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary, known for his role as an investor on the TV show Shark Tank.
The world’s biggest YouTuber, Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, has also indicated his potential involvement after several investors reached out following his tweet expressing interest.