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Microsoft Looking To Buy TikTok

Microsoft-Looking-To-Buy-TikTok

TikTok is steadily gaining in popularity globally and there is now news that the App could be bought over by Microsoft.

The rumours have now been confirmed, Microsoft is actively pursuing the purchase of the viral App TikTok.

Microsoft is currently in the process of thoroughly researching the security of the App following concerns by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been in communication with Trump regarding his concerns about the security and censorship surrounding the acquisition of the Chinese company that created TikTok, ByteDance.

They are expecting these talks to conclude by the 15 of September at the latest.

Microsoft has said in a recent statement:

“Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns. It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.

Among other measures, Microsoft would ensure that all private data of TikTok’s American users is transferred to and remains in the United States. To the extent that any such data is currently stored or backed-up outside the United States, Microsoft would ensure that this data is deleted from servers outside the country after it is transferred.”

Trump has been raising concerns about TikTok for a while now and even the secretary of the state Mike Pompeo has spoken out about it saying in a statement to Fox News:

“These Chinese software companies doing business in the United States, whether it’s TikTok or WeChat — there are countless more … are feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party, their national security apparatus. Could be their facial recognition patterns. It could be information about their residence, their phone numbers, their friends, who they’re connected to. Those are the issues that President Trump has made clear we’re going to take care of.”

Microsoft is also exploring inviting other U.S. investors to participate in the purchase on a minority basis.

According to Reuters. Byte Dance has agreed to sell its U.S. operations and it seems that Microsoft will be the lucky candidate to be able to do so. Microsoft has expressed its will to acquire TikTok’s operations in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

TikTok recently hired former Disney executive Kevin Mayer to head up its US operations as CEO.

We have no set figure for the purchase yet, but it will undoubtedly be an enormous sum, due to the popularity of the App and its ever-growing scale.