It appears that Microsoft is serious about buying ByteDance’s TikTok app, which has been under tremendous scrutiny for alleged security lapses. According to the company’s official blog, CEO Satya Nadella has already conversed with President Trump about a potential acquisition, which is pretty interesting, since the White House was considering a full-on ban. A deal could be announced as early as next month.
“Microsoft will move quickly to pursue discussions with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in a matter of weeks, and in any event completing these discussions no later than September 15, 2020,” the report reads. “During this process, Microsoft looks forward to continuing dialogue with the United States Government, including with the President.”
“This new structure would build on the experience TikTok users currently love, while adding world-class security, privacy, and digital safety protections. The operating model for the service would be built to ensure transparency to users as well as appropriate security oversight by governments in these countries.”
“Among other measures, Microsoft would ensure that all private data of TikTok’s American users is transferred to and remains in the United States. To the extent that any such data is currently stored or backed-up outside the United States, Microsoft would ensure that this data is deleted from servers outside the country after it is transferred.”
Microsoft says that it won’t be discussing this topic again until there’s something definitive to report, but the acquisition sounds like a pretty sure thing. We haven’t heard of any alternatives to the software giant yet, and it also happens to be one of the few (if not only) tech titans that could get away with such a massive buyout.