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.
TikTok is facing down a US law that ordered the company to divest from its Chinese owner ByteDance or be banned in the US.
Asked late on Monday if Microsoft was in discussion for acquiring TikTok, Trump told reporters: “I would say yes.”
“There’s a lot of interest in TikTok, there’s great interest in TikTok,” he added aboard Air Force One.
Microsoft declined to comment while TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for 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, 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.”
