Trump's order to crack down on TikTok ramps up pressure in Microsoft's talks to acquire the app
The political firestorm over Chinese video sharing app TikTok — and the possibility that Microsoft could acquire it — escalated Thursday after President Donald Trump set a 45-day deadline for an American company to purchase the video sharing app’s U.S. operations.
Trump and others consider TikTok a security threat, saying its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., could share U.S. users’ data with the Chinese government. ByteDance has denied that it would do so. Nonetheless, Trump has threatened to invoke his executive powers to shut down the app, dismaying even some of his own advisers.
On Sunday, Microsoft announced it’s in talks to buy the app, which has 800 million users worldwide, 100 million of which are in the U.S. Also on Sunday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Trump discussed the deal in a phone call that included Trump’s advisors.
Trump has insisted that sizable chunk of proceeds from TikTok’s sale be paid to the U.S. Treasury department.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2020/08/07/microsoft-tiktok-trump-administration-pressure-app.html
The last paragraph is while likely no American company will buy TikTok.
