TikTok denies report of receiving a bid from Centricus and Tiller Inc

TikTok denied receiving an offer from UK-based investment firm Centricus Asset Management Ltd and social media app Triller Inc after a report of $20 billion bid emerged on August 28. A Bloomberg report had cited a person familiar with the matter, claiming the investment firm submitted a $20 billion bid to ByteDance for TikTok's assets in the US, Australia, New Zealand and India.

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is looking to divest after data security concerns and, as a result, several non-Chinese companies have sent proposals to buy the popular video-sharing social media app. A TikTok spokesperson reportedly said that neither Centricus not Triller had contacted the company with an offer to purchase its assets. 

The process of divestment escalated after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month, banning American citizens and businesses from doing any transaction with Chinese-owned application. Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp are among the US companies eyeing the assets of TikTok, which boasts of around100 million monthly active users in the United States alone.

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Read: Walmart Joins Hands With Microsoft In Bid To Buy TikTok; What's In It For The Retailer?

Sino-US tensions

The US government decision over TikTok’s service in the US has heightened tension between Beijing and Washington since the former denounced it as “sheer gangster logic” and “daylight robbery”. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said in an interview that the Trump administration is taking actions against the Chinese video-sharing social networking service on the basis of the presumption of guilt.

Le claimed that TikTok has been communicating with the United States for nearly a year and has even made “big compromises” like instituting an all-American management team and storing all American user data in the US and Singapore. He added that the firm made its review policy and algorithm source code public, while hiring 1,500 Americans, and promising to create another 10,000 jobs. 

“Even if it ends up being acquired, a substantial portion of the money must be paid to the US government. What kind of ‘art of the deal’ is this? This is sheer gangster logic and daylight robbery,” the ministry website quoted Le as saying.

Read: Auschwitz Museum Slams TikTok's 'Holocaust' Trend; Calls It 'hurtful & Offensive'

Read: Top Democrat Condemns Donald Trump's Remarks Over Potential TikTok Acquisition

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