NEW YORK (US) – Two people familiar with the matter told that Twitter Inc has approached TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance. It showed interest in acquiring the US operations of TikTok.
According to sources, it is not certain if Twitter would be able to surpass Microsoft Corp and zero in on such a deal in the 45 days that US President Donald Trump has given ByteDance so that it would agree for a sale.
News about Twitter and TikTok being in preliminary talks was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan, said, “Twitter will have a hard time putting together enough financing to acquire even the US operations of TikTok. It doesn’t have enough borrowing capacity.”
“If it (Twitter) tries to put together an investor group, the terms will be tough. Twitter’s own shareholders might prefer that management focus on its existing business”, he added.
Twitter has also privately put forth a case that its bid is likely to face comparatively less scrutiny than Microsoft’s, and will not be subjected to any pressure from China as it is not active in that country, the sources said.
Trump said this week he was in favour of Microsoft buying TikTok’s US operations if a “substantial portion” of the proceeds went to the US government. That said, the app would be banned on September 15.
Microsoft said on Sunday it was aiming to close in on a deal by mid-September.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.