Microsoft confirms talks seeking to buy US arm of TikTok

Microsoft confirmed Sunday it is in talks with Chinese company ByteDance to acquire US arm of its popular video app TikTok and has discussed with President Donald Trump his concerns about security and censorship surrounding such an acquisition.

In a statement, Microsoft said Microsoft and ByteDance have provided tice of ir intent to explore a deal resulting in Microsoft owning and operating TikTok service in US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. company said it expects those talks to conclude by Sept. 15.

Trump said on Friday that he would soon ban TikTok in United States. Trump and CEO Satya Nadella have spoken, company said, and Microsoft was prepared to continue exploring purchase of TikTok's US operations after ir conversation.

"Microsoft fully appreciates importance of addressing President's concerns. It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper ecomic benefits to United States, including United States Treasury," Microsoft statement said.

White House did t immediately comment on Microsoft statement.

Previously, re were reports that Microsoft was in advanced talks to buy US operations of TikTok, which has been a source of national security and censorship concerns for Trump administration.

Earlier Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo again raised administration's warnings about social media platform.

"se Chinese software companies doing business in United States, wher it's TikTok or WeChat — re are countless more ... are feeding data directly to Chinese Communist Party, ir national security apparatus," Pompeo said on Fox News Channel's “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Could be ir facial recognition patterns. It could be information about ir residence, ir phone numbers, ir friends, who y're connected to. Those — those are issues that President Trump has made clear we're going to take care of," Pompeo said.

In its statement, Microsoft said it may invite or American investors to participate on a mirity basis in purchase of TikTok. Financial terms were undisclosed.

TikTok's US user data is stored in US, with strict controls on employee access, and its biggest investors come from US, company said earlier Sunday.

"We are committed to protecting our users' privacy and safety as we continue working to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform,” a TikTok spokesperson said.

A federal committee has been reviewing wher Trump could ban TikTok in US Its members agree that TikTok cant remain in US in its current form because it "risks sending back information on 100 million Americans,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

“We all agree re has to be a change ... everybody agrees it can't exist as it does," Mnuchin said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.” As speculation grew over a ban or sale of social media platform's US business, TikTok posted a video on Saturday saying, “We're t planning on going anywhere.” TikTok's catchy videos and ease of use has made it popular, and it says it has tens of millions of users in US and hundreds of millions globally. Its parent company, Bytedance Ltd., launched TikTok in 2017. It bought Musical.ly, a video service popular with teens in US and Europe, and combined two. It has a similar service, Douyin, for users in China.

But TikTok's Chinese ownership has raised concern about potential for sharing user data with Chinese officials as well as censorship of videos critical of Chinese government. TikTok says it does t censor videos and it would t give Chinese government access to US user data.

“ President, when he makes his decision, will make sure that everything we have done drives us as close to zero risk for American people,” Pompeo said.

“That's mission set that he laid out for all of us when we get — we began to evaluate this w several months back. We're closing in on a solution. And I think you will see president's anuncement shortly.” debate over TikTok parallels a broader US security crackdown on Chinese companies, including telecom providers Huawei and ZTE. Trump administration has ordered that US stop buying equipment from those providers to be used in US networks.

Trump has also tried to steer allies away from Huawei over concerns that Chinese government has access to its data, which Huawei denies.