Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has finally come forward to explain what happened with the TikTok deal. Last year, TikTok was valued at $1 billion and companies like IBM, Oracle, Walmart were vying to buy TikTok after the Trump administration threatened to ban TikTok.
But as we know, no deal was finalized. A year later, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has provided some insight into what occurred. Speaking at the Code Conference last night with Kara Swisher he said that it was TikTok who came to Microsoft; not vice versa.
Last year, when TikTok was on the verge of being banned in the United States under President Trump, Microsoft emerged as a potential buyer for the company’s US operations. TikTok had been in talks with Microsoft to enter a licensing agreement. However, the two companies could not come to an agreement over terms. Last September, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, picked Oracle over Microsoft as its US partner after the potential deal fell through.
What happened during the TikTok deal?
Speaking about the deal to Kara Swisher at Vox Media’s Code Conference on Monday Satya Nadella revealed some interesting insights.
“First of all, you’ve got to remember, TikTok came to us, we didn’t go to TikTok. It was caught in between a lot of issues that they were having across two capitals, and they wanted to partner.”
“It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever worked on, I learned so much, Kara, about so many things and so many people. TikTok was caught in between a lot of things happening across two capitals. President Trump had a particular point of view of what he was trying to get done there, and then it just dropped off. The United States government had a particular set of requirements, and then it just disappeared.”
“At this point, I’m happy with what I have,” Nadella said.
The Biden administration halted a TikTok sale after taking office, and it’s uncertain whether the agreement with Oracle will eventually be completed. Last June, the Biden administration formally revoked Trump’s executive order targeting TikTok and announced that it would establish its own procedure to examine the app.
Despite all of these problems, TikTok appears to be gaining popularity by the day. And, just recently, it reached a new milestone of 1 billion users.
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