This chart shows how a Microsoft acquisition of TikTok for $50 billion would stack up against tech's largest deals ever (MSFT)

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• Microsoft is in talks to purchase TikTok, the massively popular video app that's owned and operated by the Chinese company ByteDance.
• The purchase talks come amid threats from President Donald Trump to ban the app in the United States.
• Trump says the app funnels user information to the Chinese government, and must be operated by an American company to ensure the safety of user information.
• The cost to purchase TikTok could be as high as $50 billion, according to a recent valuation reported by Reuters. Anywhere near that number would make it one of the biggest tech acquisitions of all time.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Microsoft is in talks to buy wildly popular video sharing platform TikTok from Chinese owner ByteDance, and the deal could go as high as $50 billion — the latest valuation given to TikTok by its investors, according to a recent Reuters report.

That would make it the second-highest tech acquisition price of all time, well above the prices paid in dozens of major acquisitions.

Here's a look at the history of tech's most expensive acquisitions, from Apple's measly $3 billion purchase of Beats all the way to Dell's notoriously expensive acquisition of EMC Corporation for a whopping $67 billion:

Apple's purchase of Beats in 2014 was a two-part play: For the Beats headphone lineup, and for foundational software that would eventually lead to Apple Music. It also led to a notorious (and hilarious) video of Dr. Dre celebrating the sale with his friend Tyrese that reportedly caused Apple to "freak out."

Google's purchase of Nest in 2014 was a strategic pickup in Google's ongoing battle with Amazon in the smart home market. Nest's widely used thermostat was an early hit in the smart home business, and the Google division has only expanded out its offerings since being acquired.

Through the acquisition of Jet.com in 2016, Walmart bolstered its online storefront and has become a major player in the ecommerce market. Though Jet.com itself has since shuttered, the talent and technology that came with it live on through Walmart's online presence.

Just as AppDynamics was set to go public, the company was purchased at the eleventh hour by Cisco for $3.7 billion — an effort from Cisco to push further away from its hardware roots into the software and services business.

Adobe's purchase of Marketo added the company's services to its "Adobe Experience Cloud," a business software suite sold by Adobe. Marketo's software added several marketing services to the AEC.

See Also:

• Inside the rise of TikTok, the viral video-sharing app that Trump is trying to order its Chinese parent to sell
• ByteDance is looking outside of the US for its new TikTok headquarters
• Facebook, Google, and the US government each have their own reasons to make you believe that TikTok is scary — but they're all self-serving

SEE ALSO: Microsoft to continue talks to acquire TikTok's US operations after Trump threatened to ban the app in the US