Trump Says U.S. Should Get Slice of TikTok Sale Price
August 03 2020 - 2:06PM
Dow Jones News
By Alex Leary
WASHINGTON -- President Trump confirmed Monday he is open to a
deal in which Microsoft Corp. or another U.S. company buys the
video-sharing app TikTok, but said the government should receive
payment for clearing a purchase.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr. Trump described
the Sunday conversation he had with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
over the company's interest in buying TikTok from its Chinese
owner, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd.
"I said, 'Look it can't be controlled for security reasons by
China,'" Mr. Trump said. "Here's the deal, I don't mind whether
it's Microsoft or somebody else -- a big company, a secure company,
a very American company buy it."
But the president, who on Friday floated banning TikTok, also
said there would be conditions to a sale and he did not see how
only part of the company could be purchased. Microsoft has said it
is interested in buying TikTok operations in the U.S., Canada, New
Zealand and Australia, leaving other parts of the business in
Chinese ownership.
"I did say that 'If you buy it...a very substantial portion of
that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United
States, because we're making it possible for this deal to happen.'
Right now they don't have any rights unless we give it to
them."
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for
additional information about how that would work.
Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Mr. Trump indicated a deadline of Sept. 15, after which TikTok
would be banned in the U.S. Microsoft said Sunday that it would
move quickly to pursue discussions with ByteDance and it aims to
complete the negotiations by Sept. 15.
TikTok says it has 100 million users in the U.S.
Write to Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 03, 2020 14:51 ET (18:51 GMT)
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