U.S. President Donald Trump has given Microsoft Corp. a September 15 deadline to buy the Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok.
The Republican president, who last week threatened to ban TikTok over national security concerns, said he had a great conversation with Microsoft's chief executive officer and that it might be easier if the company buys all of TikTok rather than 30% as planned.
Trump also said that the U.S. Treasury should get a lot of money out of a TikTok deal, but it's not clear how that would happen. Microsoft said in a news release that CEO Satya Nadella had spoken to Trump and "is prepared to continue discussions to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States."
Microsoft and TikTok parent company ByteDance gave the U.S. government a notice of intent to explore a preliminary proposal for Microsoft to purchase TikTok’s service in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which amounts to about 30% of the app’s global business.
Many prominent Republicans, including House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, issued statements in support of a Microsoft acquisition of TikTok's U.S. operations. Some people in Congress are worried about a backlash by younger voters against the party if Trump bans TikTok, which has 100 million American users.
