LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Donald Trump has claimed that Microsoft is once again in talks to buy TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform.
Asked if the tech giant was in discussions with ByteDance, the app's owner, the US president said: "I would say yes. A lot of interest. There's great interest in TikTok." Trump was talking to journalists while on board Air Force One on Monday.

It was not immediately clear if the president was talking about the entire company or just TikTok's US arm.

The hugely popular video-sharing platform is thought to have around 2bn users worldwide, around 170m of which are in America.

During Trump's first term, he pushed Beijing-based ByteDance to divest the US arm, citing national security concerns. Microsoft was seen as a top bidder and discussions got underway in August 2020.

However, the talks had collapsed by September, and in November Trump was voted out of office.

Attention once again turned to the app this month, when it was briefly taken offline. ByteDance had taken the decision ahead of a law coming into effect that would require it to either sell up or face a ban.

Immediately after taking office on 20 January, Trump signed an executive order delaying the law's enforcement by 75 days. Addressing a rally shortly before his inauguration, he proclaimed TikTok was "back", telling supporters: "Frankly we have no choice. We have to save it."

TikTok also made a public statement at the time, thanking Trump for his intervention.

However, so far both Microsoft and ByteDance have stayed silent on Trump's latest comments.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said any deal would likely only involve TikTok's US arm.

He continued: "Microsoft potentially buying TikTok makes sense, given it would give the tech giant a stronger foothold in the social media platform market.

"To date, Microsoft has only dipped its toe in the water through the acquisition of LinkedIn, and that site is arguably niche.

"Owning TikTok would give Microsoft significantly greater reach among the general public and an opportunity to apply existing capabilities or develop new tools to learn about the user base and monetise that information.

"Elon Musk might aspire to own TikTok, given it is considerably more successful than X and would play to his ego. However, there would be uproar if Musk did buy the platform, as it would look like favouritism."

The owner of X, formerly Twitter, campaigned with Trump, including appearing at rallies, and has since been named co-head of a new advisory body tasked with cutting regulations and spending in federal government.

Mould added that Google-parent Alphabet, which already owns YouTube, could also be interested in TikTok, as it looks to strengthen its position against Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram.

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