ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is racing to save the video-sharing app’s US operations by making a last-ditch plea to the Trump administration to allow it to sell the unit to Microsoft. The appeal came a day after US president Donald Trump vowed to ban TikTok in the US, and said a sale to any party – including Microsoft – would not be an acceptable solution. “We are not an M&A [mergers and acquisitions] country.”The comments left some involved in the talks between Microsoft and ByteDance fearing that any hope of a deal had collapsed on Saturday. Microsoft has a limited presence in social media and believes a deal would allow it to enter a category dominated by rivals such as Facebook, one person added. Another person said that there has been no agreement on price or terms yet and characterised the discussions as “preliminary”.

Source: The Irish Times August 02, 2020 12:11 UTC