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Microsoft is reportedly in talks to acquire TikTok, as the future of the social media app in the United States remains tenuous.
According to the BBC, US President Donald Trump told reporters on January 27th that he would like to see a bidding war for TikTok, and that several companies have “great interest” in the social media app.
Microsoft is supposedly among them and is already in talks to acquire TikTok.
As yet, there is no official word from either party regarding a potential deal.
Safe for now
After briefly being taken offline last week, TikTok returned in the US thanks to an executive order from Trump, made upon his return to power on January 20th, 2025.
“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,” he said.
The order delayed TikTok’s ban by 75 days, giving owner ByteDance more time to sell the social media platform in the US. The threat of a ban still looms if a sale is not made in that time.
Trump has said that he hopes a decision on TikTok’s sale will be reached in the next 30 days; it was in fact Trump himself who ordered the divest-or-ban during his first term, back in 2020.
Microsoft was the top bidder at that time, but the deal ultimately collapsed. Now, it appears discussions may have reopened between the Windows maker and ByteDance.
Collateral damage
Of course, it may not only be TikTok on the line, as Second Dinner’s Marvel Snap and Moonton’s Mobile Legends also went offline in the US during TikTok’s temporary ban. ByteDance-owned Nuverse is the publisher of Marvel Snap and the owner of Moonton, hence the removals alongside TikTok.
Though back in action now, Second Dinner is looking for a new publisher for Marvel Snap to avoid the risk of another shutdown.
TikTok specifically was banned on the grounds of national security concerns, a decision which mobile maven and AppAgent founder Peter Fodor correctly predicted would be paused by Trump’s “business-oriented administration“.
