Soft Bank in talks with Reliance, Airtel to invest in TikTok's operation in India: Reports

Japanese conglomerate Soft Bank has been exploring options to seek possible investors who could join hands with Soft Bank to buy TikTok's assets in India. Soft Bank has been in talks for over a month with heads of India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. and Bharti Airtel Ltd, according to reports. Although reports state that developments are t moving fast, but Soft Bank is still exploring options. Soft Bank also owns a mir stake in TikTok's parent company ByteDance.

India banned TikTok app with or 58 Chinese apps on June 29 weeks after Indian Army's first violent encounter with Chinese troops this year in Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh. Followed by a ban of 47 more Chinese apps that were clones and variants of ones banned earlier. Indian Government on Wednesday banned 118 more Chinese apps including much-used game PUBG, after recent flare-up at sourn banks of Pangong Tso lake. India was one of TikTok's largest markets, with more than 200 million users.

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Microsoft buying TikTok's US operation

TikTok has been bearing brunt of a diplomatic storm from several quarters and parent company ByteDance is looking to sell its American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand operations too.

United States has also maintained that TikTok may pose a national security threat because of its Chinese ownership and asked parent company to sell its assets and exit from country. US President Donald Trump has even threatened to ban TikTok.

Microsoft was said to be in talks to buy American operation of TikTok after which retail giant Walmart also expressed interest in joining hands with Microsoft. Reports stated that Microsoft is in advanced sts to buy TikTok's American operation, but that would require TikTok to separate itself from its parent company ByteDance.

ByteDance is actively seeking investors in several countries to sell out its local operation as TikTok has been caught in geopolitical storm with accusations that sensitive user data was being passed to Chinese state, which could be a threat to national security many countries.

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