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 the heads of India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. and Bharti Airtel Ltd, according to reports. Although reports state that the developments are not moving fast, but Soft Bank is still exploring options. Soft Bank also owns a minor stake in TikTok's parent company ByteDance.

India banned TikTok app with other 58 Chinese apps on June 29 weeks after the Indian Army's first violent encounter with the Chinese troops this year in Galwan valley in eastern Ladakh. Followed by a ban of 47 more Chinese apps that were the clones and variants of the ones banned earlier. The Indian Government on Wednesday banned 118 more Chinese apps including much-used game PUBG, after the recent flare-up at the southern 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 the brunt of a diplomatic storm from several quarters and the parent company ByteDance is looking to sell its American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand operations too.

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

Microsoft was said to be in talks to buy the American operation of TikTok after which retail giant Walmart also expressed interest in joining hands with Microsoft. Reports stated that Microsoft is in advanced stages 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 the geopolitical storm with accusations that sensitive user data was being passed to the Chinese state, which could be a threat to national security many countries.

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