MSFT Microsoft Corporation

By Alex Leary 

WASHINGTON -- President Trump confirmed Monday he is open to a deal in which Microsoft Corp. or another U.S. company buys the video-sharing app TikTok, but said the government should receive payment for clearing a purchase.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr. Trump described the Sunday conversation he had with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella over the company's interest in buying TikTok from its Chinese owner, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd.

"I said, 'Look it can't be controlled for security reasons by China,'" Mr. Trump said. "Here's the deal, I don't mind whether it's Microsoft or somebody else -- a big company, a secure company, a very American company buy it."

But the president, who on Friday floated banning TikTok, also said there would be conditions to a sale and he did not see how only part of the company could be purchased. Microsoft has said it is interested in buying TikTok operations in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia, leaving other parts of the business in Chinese ownership.

"I did say that 'If you buy it...a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States, because we're making it possible for this deal to happen.' Right now they don't have any rights unless we give it to them."

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for additional information about how that would work.

Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Trump indicated a deadline of Sept. 15, after which TikTok would be banned in the U.S. Microsoft said Sunday that it would move quickly to pursue discussions with ByteDance and it aims to complete the negotiations by Sept. 15.

TikTok says it has 100 million users in the U.S.

Write to Alex Leary at alex.leary@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 03, 2020 14:51 ET (18:51 GMT)

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