Trump says Microsoft in conversations about buying Tiktok

US President Donald Trump has said Microsoft is in discussions to acquire Tiktok and that he would like to see a “bidding war” over the sale of social media app.

When asked by journalists about the American tech giant preparing a bid, Trump replied: “I would say yes” – before adding that there was “great interest in Tiktok” from several companies.

Both Trump and his predecessor Joe Biden have been trying for years to force Tikkok’s Chinese parent company, bytedance, to sell his US operations on national security grounds.

It comes when Trump signed a executive order last week to Delay a Biden -Administration Problem On Tiktok it took short app offline For its 170 m users in the United States.

Despite Tikkok awarding a 75-day postponement from the ban, Trump had been the first president to be starting to push bytance to sell his app.

In August 2020, Bytedance turned to Microsoft as a possible buyer – something that the US company’s CEO later described as ”The strangest thing”.

Later, Tiktok chose rival Oracle as a potential partner – although this deal never happened either.

Trump has previously said he was in discussions with several parties about buying Tiktok and expects to make a decision on the app’s future within the next 30 days.

A spokesperson for Microsoft said the company had “nothing to share at this time”. The BBC has also reached Tiktok for comment.

Earlier on Monday, the US president had approached a collection of Republican politicians in Florida and talked about the proposed sale of Tiktok.

“We’ll see what happens. We want a lot of people to offer it, ”he said.

“If we can save all that voice and all jobs and China will not be involved, we will not want China involved, but we will see what is happening,” he added.

Previous names associated with buying Tiktok include billionaire Frank McCourt and Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary – a celebrity investor on Shark Tank, the American version of Dragon’s Den.

The biggest YouTuber in the world Jimmy Donaldson – alias Mrbeast – has also claimed he is in the process of being after a number of investors contacted him after a former tweet signaling his interest.