Twitter and TikTok Have Held Early Talks About a Possible Combination

Social media company Twitter has held preliminary talks with ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the video sharing platform TikTok, for the app’s US operations.

In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump said that Chinese social media app TikTok will be banned if it is not purchased by a US company within 45 days, due to national security issues.

Microsoft and ByteDance are reportedly in talks and Microsoft’s total worth increased by $77 billion to $1.6 trillion just after it confirmed its interest in the acquisition of TikTok. 

Twitter has emerged as a potential buyer for TikTok’s US operations.

The news follow Microsoft recently acknowledging that it had been in talks with TikTok to possibly purchase the business.

According to a recent The Wall Street Journal article, Twitter also has held preliminary talks with the Chinese parent company for the acquisition of short video apps US business.

But it’s not clear yet if the talks will come to a conclusion as Twitter’s total worth is currently around $29 billion and TikTok’s value is more than $30 billion. 

On the other hand, Microsoft is a much larger company with a total value of $1.6 trillion which means it’s financially much stronger than Twitter. In the meantime, Microsoft is interested in the acquisition of the app’s US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand business. 

However, having a smaller team might be an advantage for Twitter as it’s likely to face less antitrust scrutiny than Microsoft. 

It’s also worth noting that Twitter acquired Vine in October 2012 for an estimated $30 million but the app shut down in 2016.