President Donald Trump told reporters that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations, Bloomberg reports. Although Trump didn’t elaborate, he stated that “there’s great interest in TikTok” and that there will be “a lot of people bidding on it.”
Microsoft and Oracle were in the running to acquire the ByteDance-owned app back in 2020 when Trump first pressured the social network to shed its Chinese ownership or face a ban.
Trump signed an executive order last week to delay the TikTok ban deadline by 75 days and told the Department of Justice not to enforce the ban’s penalties. While the app is back online, it’s still missing from app stores.
It’s worth noting that Perplexity AI has submitted a proposal to merge with TikTok. Billionaire Frank McCourt has also made a formal offer to buy the social network. In addition, Trump previously said he would be open to Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison buying TikTok.
