Microsoft may invite other American investors to participate on a minority basis in the purchase.
Following a conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and US President Donald Trump, the company has announced that it will continue discussions to explore the purchase of video-sharing app TikTok in the United States.
In a statement, Microsoft said: “We fully appreciate the importance of addressing the President’s concerns. The company is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.”
Microsoft will move quickly to pursue discussions with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, with the intention of completing discussions by September 15, 2020.
The discussions with ByteDance will build upon a notification made by Microsoft and ByteDance to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The two companies have provided notice of their intent to explore a preliminary proposal that would involve a purchase of the TikTok service in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand and would result in Microsoft owning and operating TikTok in these markets.
Microsoft may invite other American investors to participate on a minority basis in this purchase.
Microsoft said the operating model for TikTok would be built to ensure transparency to users as well as appropriate security oversight by governments in the above-mentioned markets.
Among other measures, Microsoft also assured the data protection by transferring all private data of TikTok’s American users to the US.
