Microsoft is considering buying the US operations of popular social media app Tiktok, from its owners, Chinese-based firm, Bytedance, say reports.
This comes at a time when US President Donald Trump has time and again reiterated the "threat" that the Chinese app poses to national security and has also threatened to ban it altogether.
The Indian government has already banned Tiktok and several other Chinese apps in the country.
“We’re looking at TikTok, we may be banning TikTok. We may be doing some other things. There’s a couple of options. But a lot of things are happening, so we’ll see what happens. But we are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok,” Trump had earlier said while speaking to reporters, reports CNN-News18.
Reporting on the development, Fox News Network's Charles Gasparino tweeted:
"My banking sources say they are looking at it; can't guarantee a purchase but this thing is being shopped and one of the stops has been @Microsoft."
It is, however, unclear at this point how advanced the talks between Microsoft and Bytedance are.
It is also not clear how this potential purchase will bode on Tiktok's operational structure in the US. There's also the question of whether any Chinese investors will retain stake in the company.
The US is also mulling adding Tiktok to the "entity list" which prevents all American companies from conducting business with any company on the list. Chinese tech giant, Huawei, was put on this list last year.
The TikTok app has about 800 million users worldwide. It was acquired by ByteDance in 2017.
(With inputs from CNN-News18)
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