Last year Microsoft tried to buy TikTok's business in the United States but failed at the last minute. Now Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has opened up about the drama-filled acquisition experiment.
In an interview with journalist Kara Swisher at the Code Conference, Nadella admitted that the process of acquiring TikTok was the strangest thing she had ever done. Nadella said TikTok was the first to approach Microsoft.
"It's hard to believe. I learned a lot about a lot of things and a lot of people," said Nadella, as quoted by Reuters on Thursday (30/9/2021).
"First of all, TikTok came to us. We didn't come to TikTok," he continued.
As is known, towards the end of his administration, former US President Donald Trump ordered ByteDance as the parent of TikTok to sell TikTok's US business to US companies if it wanted to continue operating. At that time the Trump administration called TikTok a threat to national security.
Microsoft was one of the US companies that TikTok approached, but in September 2020 the negotiations stalled and were called off. TikTok then chose Oracle as its partner in the US, although in the end the TikTok business in the US was not sold because Trump stepped down in a hurry.
When Microsoft's name was revealed as one of the potential new owners of TikTok, many people were confused why a software provider company like them was interested in buying a platform like TikTok.
Nadella admits that this is quite reasonable considering that Microsoft has previously acquired platforms such as Minecraft, LinkedIn and GitHub, all of which prioritize community building.
The bespectacled man said ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming was attracted to Microsoft because they offer services related to content moderation and child safety, which are developed through products on Xbox and LinkedIn.
"TikTok is caught between a lot of things happening in the two capitals. President Trump had a certain point of view on what he was trying to do there, and then it just fell through," said Nadella.
Nadella said she did not know if the US government under President Joe Biden was still trying to pressure TikTok to sell its business to US companies. The Biden administration has now announced that the process will be postponed indefinitely.
When asked if he and Microsoft would try to acquire TikTok again, Nadella said firmly. "Right now, I'm happy with what I have," he concluded.
