On January 27, U.S. President Donald Trump informed reporters that Microsoft is engaged in discussions to acquire TikTok, expressing his interest in sparking a bidding war for the app.
Both Microsoft and TikTok have not responded to Reuters' inquiries outside of regular business hours.
Trump previously mentioned being in talks with various parties regarding the purchase of TikTok and anticipates reaching a decision on the app's future within 30 days.
The app, with approximately 170 million American users, was briefly deactivated just before a law mandating ByteDance to sell it on national security grounds or face a ban came into effect on January 19.
Following his inauguration on January 20, Trump signed an executive order to postpone the law's enforcement by 75 days. This decision came after U.S. officials raised concerns about the potential misuse of Americans' data by ByteDance.