Up until last week, all of us knew that the days of TikTok is the US were numbered. President Donald Trump said, “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States.”
However, Microsoft was already hatching a scheme to take over TikTok’s US operations. That’s right, Microsoft buying TikTok is something that escalated quickly.
The US President and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella had a Phone Conversation on Sunday.
According to The New York Times, Mr Trump and Satya Nadella who is the CEO of Microsoft had a phone conversation where the latter laid down the prospects and strategies they were planning on after buying TikTok.
However, rumours have it that the president dismissed such reports of Microsoft buying TikTok, and said, “We are not an M&A country.”
Six Weeks to Seal the Deal
Microsoft has only six weeks in hand to seal the deal with TikTok. The Beijing-based company ByteDance’s venture encompasses more than a hundred million users from the US itself.
Microsoft has claimed that it will move quickly to buy the US-based operations from the parent company, confirming that it’s sure to happen before September 15th. Microsoft has also pledged that it would conduct a thorough security check, and limit all information and data within the US only.
We don’t know yet how the US President feels about this whole fiasco of Microsoft buying TikTok, as he hasn’t given a clear statement yet.
White House People Standing For the Cause
This past weekend, the top-tier White House advisors argued about the merits of Microsoft buying TikTok and conveyed the same to Mr Trump. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow, the chief of the National Economic Council advocate strongly that this massive move could be beneficial for the States. The main cause of this deliberation was the infuriating young American user base, who are enraged upon this sudden shutdown of the popular app.
How Much Will it Cost?
A group of investors, including Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic, proposed an amount of $50 billion to buy TikTok. However, Microsoft is only interested in US-based operations, which is limited to Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Rumours have it that it might ask a few other American-based companies to pitch in and hold minority stakes in the same.
ByteDance’s CEO to Have Dismissed the Rumours
The time pressure and the situations that we are in right now might make it seem like Microsoft has an upper hand. However, ByteDance’s CEO Zhang Yiming deemed the rumours of the possibilities of Microsoft buying TikTok void. He claims to disagree with the order of selling its American operations, and wrote, “The attention of the outside world and rumours around TikTok might last for a while.”
What Will Microsoft to Gain From This, If At All?
Taking over TikTok would undoubtedly give the tech giant a massive control over the largest user base of social media influencers all over the US. If the deal is sealed, Microsoft and TikTok’s tie-up can prove to be a major competition for its rivals, viz, Facebook and Google. The tech giant Google has already made huge strides in this global shutdown and is already planning to revamp the voice-tech industry. No wonder Microsoft is not planning to stay behind, with its new update called Together Mode, and now, hopefully, it buying TikTok.
However, here’s a twist – given the tough times and pressure, is Microsoft really willing to invest all its time into the politics and social enrage attached to this venture? Will Microsoft buying TikTok prove to be a fall out for its core operations anytime soon?
