“We are not going anywhere” — ByteDance offers to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations.
In response to President Donald Trump’ declarations from last Friday, ByteDance, the Chinese internet giant that owns TikTok, has offered to sell all its American operations as a way to save the business from being banned from the U.S.
On Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters that he would issue an order for TikTok, the popular short-video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, to be banned in the United States as early as Saturday.
ByteDance acquired Musical.ly, a Shanghai-based video app in a $1 billion deal in 2017 and relaunched it as TikTok the following year, making it available worldwide, including in the U.S where at the moment it counts about 100 million users.
U.S. officials have said TikTok poses a national risk due to the personal data it handles however, it’s unclear whether Trump’s threat to ban TikTok was a negotiating tactic to get Bytedance off the platform’s ownership or it has actually far more to do with national security and politics, especially given the up and coming November elections.
Microsoft and other companies have been in talks to buy TikTok, but a deal has not yet been reached and it’s unclear whether the current administration is willing to accept the divestment as a way to a resolution.
The new proposal would entail the complete divestment by parent company ByteDance and a takeover by Microsoft which will be responsible for the protection of all TikTok US users data.
Sources: The New York Times, Reuters, Wired
