The never-ending saga of TikTok’s potential ban and sale continues with United States President Donald Trump potentially revealing tech giant Microsoft’s intentions to bid for it.
According to a report by BBC, when asked by reporters if Microsoft was preparing to bid for the massive social media platform on Jan. 27, Trump said “I would say yes,” reiterating that there’s “great interest in TikTok” for purchase, and that he’d like to see a “bidding war” for it.
On Trump’s first day back in office on Jan. 20, he granted a 75 day hold on the ban. The short form video app went dark in the US for less than a day in the weekend leading up to his inauguration back into the presidential office for the first time since 2021.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “We’re going to have a lot of people bidding on it. If we can save all that voice and all the jobs, and China won’t be involved, we don’t want China involved, but we’ll see what happens.”
It’s unclear if Trump’s comments will have any affect on a potential purchase by Microsoft, or if it’s even true, as he is known to ramble and make comments off the cuff during press conferences. As of writing, there has been no comment made by Microsoft or ByteDance regarding a potential bid for the app.
The short-lived ban also affected gamers, with games owned by ByteDance or its subsidiaries going dark in the US for some time, too, including Marvel Snap and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Since then, it appears that Marvel Snap will instead be self-published by developer Second Dinner and no longer be related to former publisher, the ByteDance-owned Nuverse.
Trump actually began the movement to ban TikTok back in 2020, urging its US version to be instead be divested from China-owned ByteDance, the app’s parent company. Microsoft entered the bidding back then, but the push for divestment fizzled out once Trump left office and Joe Biden took over.
TikTok would be the latest in large-scale tech industry acquisitions by Microsoft, including Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011, Minecraft maker Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014, ZeniMax Media (Bethesda and more) for $7.5 billion in 2021, and Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion in 2023.
The price for TikTok, though, is likely much higher than any of these, with industry analysts forecasting the sale to go for at least $100 billion if it happens.
