Sources: Microsoft is pursuing a deal to buy all of TikTok's global operations, including those in India and Europe
US group explores whether it can add regions including India and Europe to deal for video app's US arm — Microsoft is chasing a deal to buy all of TikTok's global business …
Financial Times
Context & Ripple Effects
This widens a deal that had been scoped much smaller. On August 3 Microsoftconfirmed discussions limited to TikTok's US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand operations; two days later sources put the price anywhere from $10B to $30B with talks targeted to close within three weeks. The FT report now has Microsoft exploring whether it can sweep in India and Europe too — effectively the whole non-China business.
The broader scope also changes the competitive field. Twitter held preliminary combination talks betting it would draw less antitrust scrutiny than Microsoft, and late in the month Centricus and Triller surfaced a $20B bid aimed specifically at the US, Australia, New Zealand, and India assets — which TikTok says it never received.
First-order effects
Microsoft's negotiating perimeter jumps from four English-speaking markets to the entire global operation outside China, raising the price tag and the integration burden well above the earlier $10–30B range.
ByteDance faces a choice between one buyer taking everything and splitting the asset across regions — with India already contested by the Centricus–Triller consortium.
Second-order effects
Rival suitors are forced to define themselves against Microsoft's scale: Twitter's pitch was explicitly lighter antitrust exposure, while Centricus and Triller target the same India footprint this report brings into play.
European and Indian regulators gain leverage they lacked when only the US arm was for sale, since approving or blocking a single global transfer now determines who owns the platform in their markets.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, Chinese-owned consumer platforms facing national-security pressure get restructured along jurisdictional lines rather than shut down — divestiture becomes the template other governments copy.
Short-video distribution consolidates toward US platform owners able to clear antitrust and security review simultaneously, narrowing the field to a handful of buyers with both balance sheets and regulator goodwill.
The trend: Forced-divestiture pressure on Chinese-owned apps is turning short-video platforms into geographically partitioned assets, with the buyer pool set by who can pass both antitrust and national-security review.
This makes a lot more sense than buying it in 4 countries, of course. Presumably that *stated* deal was about time pressure. And India is the real key here, obviously. Plus this will mean more money for Treasury. 🙄 https://twitter.com/...
This makes far more sense. Still have to deal with the weak moat, competitors and the India ban. But at least the network is in one piece. https://twitter.com/...
Exclusive: Microsoft is seriously looking at buying all of TikTok, not just US+Canada+Oz+Nz latest @FT by @MilesKruppa in SF, @SJFindlay in Delhi, @primroseriordan in HK, @JFK_America in NYC, @YuanfenYang in Beijing, @RichardWaters in SF and me in London https://www.ft.com/...
TikTok videos “offer insight into pop culture. They show people of different ethnicities engaged in a variety of activities. Microsoft can feed all that data into ‘training models’ that help its artificial-intelligence systems learn.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
“emerging as a crucial component for the creation of #AI the technology that can understand speech, decipher images & handle tasks that require basic decision-making skills .. it's 1 reason @Microsoft is negotiating with @tiktok_us parent @BytedanceTalk ” https://www.washingtonpo…
Let's see if I can do this right... 1) TikTok is eating FB lunch 2) FB is owned by Mark Zuckerberg 3) Mark Zuckerberg is friends with Peter Thiel 4) Peter Thiel advises Donald Trump 5) Trump tells TikTok to sell to a US company 6) TikTok has a page for Kevin Bacon. https://twitte…
This is hilarious. USG is forcing Tiktok to sell because it fears they will collect and use user data, to help Microsoft collect and use Tiktok user data. Chinese agents werent going to jerk off to Tiktok user data, they were going to use it for exact same purpose. Whats missing?…
People are always asking why I think TikTok is dangerous... it's this notion of building an “everyone model” that can identify anyone with only their face. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...