Twitter Has Held 'Preliminary Talks' About TikTok Acquisition

by Kay Lee

Not only Microsoft plans to acquire a part of the popular Chinese social media platform. Twitter has reportedly held "preliminary talks" with TikTok about a potential "combination." The details of the deal were not specified, but, according to media reports, Microsoft is still the front-runner and is ready to pay more than $30 billion for TikTok.

Microsoft Will Continue Discussions to Buy TikTok in the US
In its blog post, Microsoft confirmed talks on the purchase of the American share of TikTok, and declared its readiness to continue discussing the potential deal after a conversation between Microsoft CEO and US President.
The Internet ProtocolKay Lee

If this price tag for TikTok is correct, Twitter is unlikely to succeed. If the company wants to acquire TikTok, they will need to attract investors because the microblogging network's market capitalization is only $29 billion, whereas Microsoft’s reaches $1.6 trillion.

It is still not clear why Twitter would be interested in a possible acquisition of TikTok, taking into account many problems it could face, let alone the high price tag of the platform. However, it is evident that the short video-sharing social networking platform is limited in time. On August 7, Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban transactions with Chinese companies ByteDance and Tencent. The order will take effect in 45 days, but an American company's sale would alleviate these concerns.

Trump Sets Deadline for Tiktok U.S. Ban Unless the American Company Buys It
At a press conference in the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump explained in detail why, in his opinion, Microsoft or another “big,” “secure,” and “very American” company should buy TikTok.
The Internet ProtocolIvan Tkachenko

Meanwhile, at the White House's request, specialists from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency examined the TikTok application and found no evidence that the personal data of TikTok users was transferred to the PRC authorities.

TikTok believes that the U.S. government is "using national security as an excuse and using state power to oppress non-American businesses." Also, Wang Wenbin, Chinese politician diplomat, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the U.S.'s move is political, noting that it "will only lose its moral high ground with a damaged image and a deficit of trust."

TikTok will sue the Trump administration on August 11 to challenge the decision to block the China-based ByteDance app in the United States.