Microsoft says it will continue its efforts to buy TikTok after dealing with some confusion from President Trump, who had announced that he would ban the app and oppose the business deal, prompting panic and heartbreak among TikTok users.
On Friday night, President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he was banning the mega-popular video-sharing app TikTok in the U. S. — something he and White House officials had been threatening to do for weeks over concerns about how the Chinese-owned company collected and handled U. S. user data. Said Trump, who says a lot of things, “As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” adding that, “I have that authority,” and that, “It’s going to be signed tomorrow.”
Trump also weighed in — somewhat confusingly — on a developing (seemingly White House-backed) deal aimed at avoiding the ban between ByteDance, the Chinese internet company which owns the app, and Microsoft. “[It’s] not the deal that you have been hearing about,” Trump continued, “that they are going to buy and sell, and this and that — and Microsoft and another one. We’re not an M&A [mergers and acquisitions] country.”
But Trump did not ban TikTok on Saturday; he spent the day golfing and tweeting, and he didn’t ban it on Sunday, either. It’s still not clear if Trump’s announcement was some kind of negotiating tactic, a pure-politics attempt to sound tough on China, or just another impulsive outburst by the pronouncement-prone president. Whatever the reason, the news prompted countless TikTok users to panic, with some issuing tearful goodbyes to their followers and others vowing electoral revenge. Microsoft temporarily paused its efforts to acquire the app amid the mixed signals from the White House. And GOP leaders tried to remind Trump about the art of favoring a deal.
Below is what we know about what has happened so far with the TikTok ban and Microsoft deal, and what might happen next.
Trump didn’t appear to be in any hurry to follow through on his annoucement over the weekend, and White House officials remained vague regarding the possible timing of any followthrough. But with the news on Sunday night that Microsoft was resuming its efforts to buy TikTok — the risk of a ban seems low, at least for now.
During a Fox News interview on Sunday morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the president would “take action in the coming days” to address “national security risks” presented by Chinese-owned software companies — which may mean the Trump will be targeting more than just TikTok.
It’s also important to note that there have been bipartisan security concerns over the app, so Trump and his allies aren’t simply going it alone in this case. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin claimed that “everybody agrees [TikTok] can’t exist as it does,” including both the White House and congressional leaders.
TikTok has an estimated 100 million U. S. users, having enjoyed explosive growth in the past few years to become one of the most-downloaded apps of all time — as well as a rare competitor to Facebook and Google. The company has an estimated value of as much as $20-40 billion, according to Bloomberg. Any deal to acquire TikTok would have to be approved by both U. S. foreign investment and anti-trust regulators, and while there may be other companies or investors interested in a deal, Microsoft had seemed to be uniquely positioned to be able to both afford TikTok as well as win U. S. government approval. Then Trump weighed in on Friday night.
The president’s statements spurred TikTok to make additional concessions, including agreeing to add as many as 10,000 jobs in the U. S. over the next three years, but it isn’t clear if those will alter Mr. Trump’s stance, one of the people said. The founder of TikTok parent Bytedance Ltd., Zhang Yiming, also agreed to sell his stake as part of any deal, the person said. Mr. Zhang was going to retain a minority stake under the deal being discussed before Mr. Trump’s late Friday remarks, the person said.
The software giant was in advanced talks with Bytedance, gaining momentum toward a deal they believed met the White House goal for the popular app to get bought by a U. S. company, the people said. Those plans were interrupted when Mr. Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he preferred to ban the app and wouldn’t support a sale.
Treasury officials reportedly told the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U. S. on Friday morning that the ByteDance-Microsoft deal was imminent. The subsequent confusion, according to the Journal, is because some Trump administration officials favor the deal, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, while others favor an outright ban, like trade advisor (and anti-China hardliner) Peter Navarro — who tried to claim on Saturday night that Microsoft could not be trusted since it already does business with China.
