Update 8/1 1: 30 PM PT: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the offer ByteDance and Microsoft were pitching as a method to keep TikTok running as a U.S. company here in the States is on hold. The reason offered is that both celebrations are now a bit shaken by Trump’s declarations late last night about not permitting such a deal to go through and being intent on a restriction. They’re now “searching for clearness” on the White House position on such an offer. We’re looking into it with Microsoft and ByteDance, but for now we have not heard that anything product is different here– the offer was always contingent on tacit, if not explicit, approval from the administration. We will upgrade if we hear more. The initial story follows.
China’s ByteDance has actually agreed to divest its TikTok operations in the U.S., according to a report in Reuters. The offer permits another business besides Microsoft to operate TikTok in the United States.
Apparently, ByteDance had actually formerly sought an offer that would permit the company to keep a minority stake in the business. That strategy was apparently recently deserted after the White Home turned down the proposition.
Under this new deal, Microsoft would supervise of securing U.S.-based users’ data, and another U.S.-based business would be allowed to operate TikTok.
It’s unclear if this offer would suffice to enable TikTok to continue to operate within the United States.
Microsoft and the White Home did not react to a request for comment.
This news comes hours after President Trump told reporters that he was going to sign an executive order banning the Chinese-owned app from operating within the United States. In action, ByteDance issued the following statement, which we at first reported here.
“100 million Americans concern TikTok for home entertainment and connection, particularly during the pandemic. We’ve hired almost 1,000 individuals to our U.S. group this year alone, and are proud to be hiring another 10,000 staff members into excellent paying tasks across the U.S. Our $1 billion developer fund supports U.S. creators who are developing incomes from our platform. TikTok U.S. user information is kept in the U.S., with strict controls on employee gain access to. TikTok’s greatest financiers come from the U.S. We are committed to securing our users’ personal privacy and security as we continue working to bring pleasure to households and significant professions to those who produce on our platform,” said a TikTok spokesperson.
TechCrunch.
