Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said the company’s bid to acquire the U.S. assets of ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok was the “strangest thing” he’s ever worked on.
The CEO reflected on the potential deal at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on Monday. The transaction fell through last year, and Nadella says he’s happy with “what I have” when asked about more potential acquisitions.
Microsoft had been prepared to spend tens of billions of dollars to acquire the U.S. assets of TikTok, the viral video-sharing app heavily used by young people. But ByteDance chose to pursue a rival TikTok bid from a group led by Oracle Corp.—a deal that also failed to materialize.
The takeover frenzy stemmed from a move by President Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok from operating in the country, arguing that the Chinese-owned company posed national-security threats. In June, President Joe Biden decided to not to pursue the Trump-era ban.
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