President Trump Gives TikTok 45 Days To Finalize Acquisition Deal With Microsoft

On Sunday, Microsoft confirmed its intention to acquire TikTok’s operation in the US. In a statement, the company said it would continue to works closely with the US government and the talks with ByteDance would be concluded on September 15.

If the deal with the Chinese tech giant was to be consummated, Microsoft would achieve two goals – strengthen its position in consumer technology with the popularity of TikTok, and resolve an ongoing controversy in Washington.

This statement was made public two days after several media outlets revealed Microsoft’s interest in acquiring TikTok. After reports of the acquisition surfaced, President Donald Trump expressed his opposition to the acquisition.

ByteDance is reportedly in talks with Microsoft to sell TikTok in Canada, the US, New Zealand, and Australia. It is believed that the American company would offer other investors the chance to take part in this acquisition.

According to Microsoft, after the company takes over TikTok, users will still have access to the structure they are currently using and love, all while ensured of privacy, safety, and security.

The company went further to promise transparency oversight by these countries’ governments.

On Sunday, Reuters reported Trump gave ByteDance 45 days to seal the deal with Microsoft. The American tech giant said after acquiring the app, data of US TikTok users would be stored locally and those stored in other locations would be moved and then removed.

This acquisition is projected to complicate Microsoft’s relationship with Facebook, which considers ByteDance a competitor. In 2007, Microsoft invested in Facebook and the two companies have worked on some projects together.

In June, after the company axed Mixer, its game streaming service, it encourages the platform’s users to switch to that of Facebook.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced the death of Lasso, its own take on TikTok, which allows users to record video and add music.

TikTok was first introduced in 2017 outside mainland China. A few months later, the company announced the acquisition of Musical.ly, a quite popular social media app among teens at a reported price of $800 million.

Some reports revealed that Facebook also wanted to acquire Musical.ly in 2016.

CNBC said in October last year that ByteDance had moved to the office once used by WhatsApp and started hiring way employees from Facebook.

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