Trump says Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok

1 week ago 13

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday (Jan 27) that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app.

Microsoft and TikTok did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for a comment outside regular business hours.

Trump has previously said that he was in discussions with several parties about purchasing TikTok and expects to make a decision on the app's future within the next 30 days.

Reuters previously reported that two people with knowledge of the discussions said Trump's administration is working on a plan to save TikTok that involves tapping software company Oracle and a group of outside investors to effectively take control of the app's operations.

Under the deal being negotiated by the White House, TikTok's China-based owner, ByteDance, would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle, which already provides the foundation of TikTok's Web infrastructure, one of the sources told Reuters.

However, Trump said he had not spoken to Oracle's Larry Ellison about buying the app.

Asked if he was putting together a deal with Oracle and other investors to save TikTok, Trump said: "No, not with Oracle. Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying it and I will make that decision probably over the next 30 days.

"Congress has given 90 days. If we can save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing."

US search engine startup Perplexity AI has revised the merger proposal it had submitted to ByteDance to create a new entity combining Perplexity and TikTok US, a person familiar with the proposal told Reuters on Sunday.

The proposal calls for the US government to own up to 50 per cent of the new company upon a future initial public offering (IPO), the person said.

A Perplexity document shared with ByteDance and new investors proposed the creation of a new US holding company called "NewCo", the person said.

Under the proposal, ByteDance would sell TikTok US to the investors, which would give TikTok's existing investors equity in the company. The proposal would also exclude TikTok's core recommendation algorithm, which ByteDance would keep, the person said.

The US government would own up to half of the new structure once it goes through an IPO of a valuation of at least US$300 billion.

Perplexity AI would also offer to be acquired by the holding company if its own investors received a distribution of the NewCo equity, the person said.

The app, which has about 170 million American users, was briefly taken offline just before a law requiring ByteDance to either sell it on national security grounds or face a ban took effect on Jan 19.

Trump, after taking office on Jan 20, signed an executive order seeking to delay by 75 days the enforcement of the law that was put in place after US officials warned that there was a risk of Americans' data being misused under ByteDance.

Read Entire Article
Rapat | | | |