Microsoft’s Bid To Purchase TikTok Is Rejected

Microsoft will not be purchasing the wildly influential social media app, Tik-Tok, the company announced, Sunday. ByteDance, according to a statement from Microsoft, refused to sell to them.

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“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft,” the company said in the statement. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”

Instead, ByteDance has reportedly reached an agreement with the software giant, Oracle.

TikTok was desperate to be sold after the Trump administration put pressure on the company, considering TikTok to be a threat to national security.

“The U.S. government is forcing one of China’s most successful global media companies to sell under a less than ideal timeframe, and China is trying to avoid having this set a precedent,” said Paul Triolo, head of global technology policy at the Eurasia Group. “The TikTok ban has to be viewed as part of this longer-term effort by the U.S. to police the boundaries of its technology ecospheres with China.”

[Via]