Donald Trump claims Microsoft in talks to buy TikTok amid 'great interest' in platform

Donald Trump has claimed that Microsoft is in talks to buy TikTok, adding he wants to see a bidding war over the platform.

A couple of weeks ago, Americans feared the worst after a looming ban on the Chinese-owned app TikTok approached.

The deadline of 19 January for TikTok’s owners to sell or be banned in the US was put in place by the Joe Biden administration over concerns about TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and its potential links to the Chinese government, which was deemed a security risk.

Despite saying in 2020 that he was going to ban TikTok, on his return to office on 20 January, Trump gave TikTok a 75-day extension, during which the owners must find a suitable buyer.

Now Trump has claimed that American tech company Microsoft is interested. Asked specifically about Microsoft and if they were interested, Trump said, “I would say yes”, adding: “A lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in TikTok.”

TikTok has 170 million users in the US alone. The platform was briefly taken offline before an executive order was signed to delay the ban for 75 days.

Trump claimed he is in talks with multiple people who are interested in buying TikTok and said he was open to tech billionaire Musk purchasing it, should he want to.

As it stands, Musk has not publicly made any comments about purchasing TikTok, unlike the content creator MrBeast, who has said he will be putting in an “official offer”.

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