Josh Hendrickson
TikTok, the social network famous for short videos with cute dances, may get a new owner shortly. At least, for the U.S. portion of the business. Microsoft confirmed it’s in talks to buy TikiTok in the U.S.
TikTok currently has over 100 million users in the U.S., but it’s a global social network. Its current parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. That fact led to accusations that America data ends up on Chinese servers, despite TikTok’s assurances otherwise. President Trump had recently threatened to ban the social network in the U.S. on national grounds.
That’s where Microsoft comes in. The company plans to purchase the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand portion of TikTok and bring all American data to the country. That data would stay on Microsoft’s Azure servers, and any ties to off-shore servers would be severed.
Initially, it seemed President Trump wasn’t satisfied with the idea, but Microsoft’s CEO, SatyaNadella, spoke with the President by phone. That seems to have made the difference, and the talks of a buyout are back on.
Microsoft says it wants to complete negotiations not later than September 15, 2020.
Source: Microsoft
