SoftBank Likely to Count on Bid for TikTok in India
SoftBank Group, a Japanese multinational conglomerate, is actively looking for local partners and is keen on assembling a group of bidders for TikTok's India assets. SoftBank owns a stake in TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance, thus, initiated a talk with the Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel
While TikTok is looking out to sell its operation in various countries after the Indian governments have shut out the app fearing that Indian's personal data are been secretly accessed by China. Thus, the country to a serious measure to ban 59 Chinese applications in July which included TikTok. India was the biggest market for TikTok having more than 200 million users. The National data security concern also forced U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten that TikTok would be banned and ordered ByteDance to sell its assets in the country.
Though SoftBank holds a minor stake in ByteDance, it has played an active role in negotiations. The company has brought in Walmart in the United States as the main investor in a group of bidders that includes Google parent Alphabet. However, the consortium didn't proceed further as Donald Trump's administration insisted a US tech company lead the investments.
It is observed that Google was not interested in the bidding, while Walmart joined the bid led by Microsoft. Yet, it is not clear with whom SoftBank is currently associated within the country.
According to reports, SoftBank's frequent adviser, Centricus Asset Management has teamed up with Triller in a bid for TikTok's operations in the United States and various other countries for $20 billion.
Masayoshi Son, SoftBank founder has always been interested in investing in India and a deep network of local business connections. Also, the Indian startup backed by Masayoshi includes Snaldeal, ride-hailing service Ola Cabs, and hotel room booking app Oyo Rooms.
SoftBank has invested about $2765 million into eye-care provider Lenskart, minting India's latest unicorn. The company has also invested in a solar power joint venture with Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan's Foxconn Technology.
