WASHINGTON: Holding back from his threat to ban
TikTok
in America, US President Donald Trump has given Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella 45 days to complete a total acquisition of the Chinese short video app, after a phone conversation with the Indian-American executive who has led the tech giant to a trillion-dollar company after he took over in 2014.
Trump’s reversal of a ban that was to come on Saturday followed pressure from globalists within the Republican Party who felt such a strong-arm action would reflect poorly on the administration, particularly since TikTok has more than 100 million young users in the US, it’s third largest market after India and China. There was also the implicit threat of retaliation from China that would affect many American companies such as Apple, Tesla, and Microsoft itself, leading to an all-out trade war, besides inviting legal challenges.
A case was made for allowing Microsoft to continue its nego