BEVERLY HILLS – Microsoft Corp’s near-acquisition of social media app TikTok last year was the “strangest thing I’ve ever worked on”, said CEO Satya Nadella yesterday.
TikTok had been ordered by then United States president Donald Trump to separate its US version from Chinese parent ByteDance because of national security concerns on the collection of US users’ data.
Microsoft in August last year began talks on the proposed acquisition, but the deal collapsed by the following month.
Trump’s divestment push ended by the time he left office in January this year, and no potential suitor ended up acquiring TikTok.
Speaking at the Code Conference here, Nadella said he was looking forward to bringing Microsoft’s security, child safety and cloud expertise to TikTok.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said of the experience, during an onstage interview.
“I learnt so many things about so much, and so many people. First of all, TikTok came to us. We didn’t go to TikTok.
“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 (US government) had a particular set of requirements, and then it just disappeared.”
He said what attracted ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming to Microsoft was the US firm’s services related to content moderation and child safety, developed through products included in Xbox video-game tools and on business social network LinkedIn.
ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nadella said he has no idea whether the US is still pushing for a deal under President Joe Biden.
The current administration has said it is reviewing the national security concerns.
“At this point, I’m happy with what I have,” said Nadella.
He also expressed support for greater government regulation of cryptocurrency rules, which could stifle ransomware attacks since the demands often flow through opaque systems. – Reuters, September 28, 2021
