Sci & Tech
Trump Says Microsoft In Talks To Buy TikTok
US President Donald Trump has said that Microsoft is in discussions to acquire TikTok and that he would like to see a “bidding war” over the sale of the social media app.
When asked by reporters whether the US tech giant was preparing a bid, Trump replied: “I would say yes” – before adding that there was “great interest in TikTok” from several companies.
Both Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden have been trying for years to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its US operations on national security grounds.
It comes as Trump signed an executive order last week to reverse a Biden Administration ban on TikTok that briefly took the app offline for its 170m users in the United States.
Despite granting TikTok a 75-day reprieve from the ban, Trump had been the first president to start pressuring ByteDance to sell its app.
In August 2020, ByteDance approached Microsoft as a possible buyer – something which the US company’s chief executive later described as “the strangest thing”.
Later, TikTok chose rival Oracle as a potential partner – although that deal also never happened.
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.
A spokesperson for Microsoft said the company had “nothing to share at this time”. The BBC has also reached out to TikTok for comment.
Earlier on Monday, the US president had addressed a gathering of Republican politicians in Florida and spoke about the proposed sale of TikTok.
“We’ll see what happens. We’re going to have a lot of people bidding on it,” he said.
“If we can save all that voice and all the jobs, and China won’t be involved, we don’t want China involved, but we’ll see what happens,” he added.
Previous names linked with buying TikTok include billionaire Frank McCourt and the Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary – a celebrity investor on Shark Tank, the US version of Dragon’s Den.
The biggest YouTuber in the world Jimmy Donaldson – AKA MrBeast – has also claimed he is in the running after a number of investors contacted him following an earlier tweet signalling his interest.
(BBC)
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
A Packet of Milk, A Public Strip Search and 26 Years Thrown Away: The Ugly Face of Lipton Teas’ Kenyan Operations Exposed
The Listing That Doesn’t Lie: What the Market Isn’t Saying About Family Bank’s NSE Debut
8 Dead After US Air Force B-52 Bomber Crashes Shortly After Takeoff In California
Sh11 Billion Zakhem Debt Bombshell Rocks Kenya Pipeline Three Months After IPO, As Questions Mount Over What Investors Were Told
How A Convicted Zimbabwean Fraudster Quietly Bought His Way Into Kenya’s Sh375 Billion JKIA Mega-Deal
How an Egyptian-Headquartered AI Medical Platform Harvested the Sensitive Health Data of Over 60,000 Kenyans — Leaving Thousands Exposed to a Mega Privacy Catastrophe in Foreign Hands
Inside the Cover-Up: How Diageo and EABL Allegedly Buried a Sexual Harassment Scandal at the Kisumu Brewery and Are Now Racing to Sell the Evidence Out of Kenya’s Reach
Lopokoiyit The Fraudster? Why A Past Scandal At Safaricom Has Come To Haunt Absa Executive Sitoyo
FACTBOX – Key Provisions In Iran-US Draft Memorandum Of Understanding According To Iranian Media
FACTBOX – What Sanctions Could Be Lifted Under New US-Iran Peace Deal?
Inside NCBA’s Decline: How a Banking Giant Lost Its Strategic Edge
Cement, Cash and Courts: How the Hashu Dynasty Crushed the Ramji Brothers for Fourteen Years and Why the Walls Are Now Closing In
Standard Chartered Ghosts Haunt Joshua Oigara At Stanbic As Whistleblower Spills Beans
Inside The Urban Planning Cartel That Owns Nairobi
Businessman Philip Waithaka Kinuthia’s Minor Son Allegedly Drove Drunk, Killed Two Peponi Students in Ngong Road Horror Crash as Claims of Cover-Up Intensify
South Sudan: Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Exposed
Why Ruto’s Favourite Candidate Adan Mohammed Could Be Locked Out of the KRA Top Job
Why John Ngumi Is Running From the EACC and Why the Sh415 Million Payday May Be the Least of His Worries
Betika Faces DCI Probe, Directors Arrest and License Revocation Over Massive 29.5 Million Safaricom Customers’ Data Breach
The President’s Daughter and The Missing Witness: How Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Silenced Its Most Dangerous Critic
-
Business6 days agoInside NCBA’s Decline: How a Banking Giant Lost Its Strategic Edge
-
Investigations2 weeks agoCement, Cash and Courts: How the Hashu Dynasty Crushed the Ramji Brothers for Fourteen Years and Why the Walls Are Now Closing In
-
Business5 days agoStandard Chartered Ghosts Haunt Joshua Oigara At Stanbic As Whistleblower Spills Beans
-
Investigations1 week agoInside The Urban Planning Cartel That Owns Nairobi
-
News21 hours agoBusinessman Philip Waithaka Kinuthia’s Minor Son Allegedly Drove Drunk, Killed Two Peponi Students in Ngong Road Horror Crash as Claims of Cover-Up Intensify
-
Africa4 days agoSouth Sudan: Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Exposed
-
Business4 days agoWhy John Ngumi Is Running From the EACC and Why the Sh415 Million Payday May Be the Least of His Worries
-
Africa5 days agoThe President’s Daughter and The Missing Witness: How Adut Salva Kiir’s Shadow Treasury Silenced Its Most Dangerous Critic