Microsoft Looking To Acquire TikTok In The US

Microsoft is in talks with Chinese company ByteDance to acquire the social app TikTok in the U.S. The tech giant confirmed on Sunday that it was looking to finish the acquisition deal by Sept. 15.

Microsoft announced that the deal would address a recent controversy in Washington and give it an added leverage in the consumer technology industry. The announcement came two days after unverified reports about Microsoft’s alleged plan to acquire TikTok had surfaced on Friday. The reports allegedly did not sit well with Donald Trump, who also disclosed his plan to ban TikTok in the U.S.

Amid the reports, Microsoft claimed on Sunday that it had already spoken with Trump regarding the acquisition. However, the company refused to disclose the terms of the deal.

“This new structure would build on the experience TikTok users currently love, while adding world-class security, privacy, and digital safety protections,” said Microsoft. “The operating model for the service would be built to ensure transparency to users as well as appropriate security oversight by governments in these countries.” Microsoft also revealed that it was planning to get other American investors involved in the acquisition deal.

Meanwhile, other sources claimed that Trump had given ByteDance 45 days to cut its deal with Microsoft over TikTok. The order was reportedly despite Microsoft ensuring the U.S. government that data on TikTok users in the U.S. would not be located anywhere outside the country. Microsoft also said it would delete all data stored elsewhere after the move.

Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin revealed that the Committee on Foreign Investment was reviewing the TikTok app over its potential to pose a national security risk. This was after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had revealed that TikTok was “feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party.”

Microsoft’s acquisition of TikTok is expected to complicate its relationship with Facebook, which considers ByteDance as a major competitor. Microsoft has been working on various initiatives with Facebook since the tech company invested at least $240 million in the social networking site in 2007. Earlier this year, Facebook also announced that it would ditch the video recording app Lasso due to its resemblance to TikTok.