Microsoft would be in talks to buy Tik Tok

2020-08-01T06:04:22.084Z

The close expectation of Donald Trump arrives on TikTok, a company based in the United States but owned by the Chinese ByteDance, accused of being an instrument in the hands of Beijing and of using the popular app to spy on millions of Americans. According to reports well-informed sources to the Bloomberg agency, the decree developed by the White House provides that ByteDance sells all its shares in TikTok, the ones it had acquired in 2016. Ready to enter the scene, according to the New York Times, c is therefore Microsoft, which would already be in talks for the purchase of social media which is followed and used all over the world by over 800 million people, especially teenagers. It is unclear how far the negotiations between the computer giant founded by Bill Gates and TikTok have progressed, but the White House order should facilitate an acceleration of the talks. Even if for now the mouths remain sewn in the Redmond headquarters and no detail leaks about the possible operation. Just as it is not clear if there are other big tech interested. TikTok was founded in 2014, two years before it was acquired by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company with a market value valued at over $ 110 million. The Trump administration has been investigating the possible national security risks posed by TikTok for some time, despite the fact that the company has its headquarters in New York and Los Angeles and despite the fact that last May its leaders, to try to dispel the concerns, engaged as CEO a former Disney top manager, Kevin Mayer. Days ago Trump had also threatened the possibility of banning TikTok in the US, placing it on the black list of the Department of Commerce where companies believed to be a danger to national security are located. The same treatment, therefore, reserved for Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant accused of wanting to spy on the West through the creation of the new generation 5G networks. In recent days, however, a softer line would prevail in the White House, also due to the popularity enjoyed by TikTok among young Americans which could prove to be a boomerang for the Trump administration.