ZDNet
The owner of controversial video-sharing app TikTok has a September 15 deadline to either sell to a US company or see the service banned from the US market, following President Donald Trump’s executive order that labelled the platform as a national emergency.
Microsoft threw its hat in the ring prior to the official announcement from the president, saying it wanted to scoop up TikTok and add world-class security, privacy, and digital safety protections to the app if it did.
It soon reportedly joined forces with Walmart to co-bid for the Chinese company’s US, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand operations.
Microsoft officials had characterised the discussions as preliminary, noting it was not intending to provide any further updates on the discussions until there was a definitive outcome.
But in approaching the deadline, ByteDance said it would not include TikTok’s algorithm as part of the sale, according to a South China Morning Post report. The Chinese company has also told Microsoft it would not be its new owner.