Trump stated there’s been ‘a variety of curiosity in TikTok’ however didn’t specify which different corporations are serious about shopping for the Chinese language-owned app.
President Donald Trump stated on Monday that Microsoft is likely one of the corporations serious about shopping for TikTok, because the video-sharing app faces a possible nationwide ban in the US.
Talking to reporters aboard Air Pressure One, the president was requested if Microsoft is in talks to accumulate the Chinese language-owned app, to which he replied, “I’d say sure.”
Trump added that there was “a variety of curiosity in TikTok” however didn’t supply particulars about different corporations serious about buying it.
“I like bidding wars since you make your greatest deal. So if there’s a bidding warfare, that’s a very good factor,” the president instructed reporters.
The Epoch Occasions has reached out to each TikTok and Microsoft for remark however didn’t hear again by publication time.
TikTok was briefly shut down in the US on Jan. 19, simply hours earlier than a regulation signed by then-President Joe Biden took impact. The regulation required TikTok’s China-based guardian firm, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. property on nationwide safety grounds or face a nationwide ban.
Trump stated the pause would enable his administration a chance “to find out the suitable course ahead in an orderly means that protects nationwide safety whereas avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform utilized by thousands and thousands of People.”
Trump instructed reporters on Jan. 21 that he anticipates a deal the place the US would maintain a 50 % stake in TikTok. He stated the US “will make it very worthwhile for them [ByteDance] by way of the permits and the whole lot else.”
“So what I’m occupied with saying to anyone is, ‘Purchase it and provides half to the US of America, and we’ll provide the allow,’ they usually’ll have a fantastic accomplice,” Trump stated.
Katabella Roberts and Reuters contributed to this report.