Microsoft Silent On Trump Claim It Is In Talks To Buy TikTok
Trump signed an executive order to delay the enforcement of the TikTok ban by 75 days
President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that Microsoft is in talks to buy TikTok but the company has remained mum about it.
A law was passed during the Biden administration that requires the ByteDance-owned social media app to be sold to a non-Chinese company to operate in the United States.
The law went into effect just before Trump returned to office. He signed an executive order to delay the enforcement of the TikTok ban by 75 days.
Microsoft has not responded to the claims it is interested, Reuters reported.
TikTok was briefly taken offline but access was quickly restored.
TikTok claimed, "as a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!"
Individuals who previously downloaded the app can access the service but new downloads are unavailable in the Apple and Google app stores.
Microsoft isn't the only company that Trump has in mind to take over TikTok.
Trump said he's in talks with many people about buying TikTok including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Oracle chairman Larry Ellison and would like to see a bidding war over the social media app.
Trump said he will have a decision within 30 days about the app's future, Reuters reported.
TikTok's ban has affected other apps owned by ByteDance including Marvel Snap, CapCut, and Lemon8.
Instagram unveiled a new app feature amidst the TikTok ban that targets TikTok creators and Meta released a bevy of features to attract short-video creators.
Perplexity AI submitted a revised proposal to ByteDance, under which the U.S. government could acquire up to a 50% stake in a new entity that merges TikTok's U.S. operations with Perplexity AI.
TikTok has nearly 170 million American users on its platform.
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