Last week, Microsoft had announced that it was in talks to acquire TikTok’s business in the US.
Twitter is reportedly in talks with TikTok owner ByteDance to acquire the US operations of the video-sharing app.
It comes after Microsoft announced its interest in buying TikTok US, with the intention of completing discussions by September 15, 2020. Microsoft has now expanded the proposed deal, saying it was planning to buy TikTok’s entire global operations, including the video app’s operations in India and Europe, The Financial Times reported.
Twitter has a market capitalisation of close to $30bn, almost as much as the valuation of TikTok’s assets to be divested and would need to raise additional capital to fund the deal, according to the sources.
Twitter also privately made a case that its bid would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft and will not face any pressure from China given that it is not active in that country, the sources said.
TikTok, ByteDance and Twitter declined to comment.
