Microsoft's TikTok Deal Reportedly Ballooned After Trump Intervened (cnbc.com) 44
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Microsoft's acquisition talks with TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance "ballooned" this summer after President Donald Trump intervened, according to a report from The New York Times, citing people familiar with the situation. ByteDance is being forced to sell TikTok's U.S. business by the Trump administration, which says the app's current ties to China make it a national security threat. An executive order signed by Trump on Aug. 6 means a sale must go through before Sept. 15. However, TikTok sued the U.S. government on Monday, alleging it was deprived of due process. The lawsuit could delay the ban, giving TikTok more time to get a better deal for the sale.
When the deal talks began, Microsoft is said to have been reluctant to do any kind of large TikTok acquisition, due in part to the rising tensions between the U.S. and China, according to the Times report. However, a minority stake in the wildly popular video sharing app was viewed positively as it may lead to TikTok ditching Google Cloud, which it currently uses, and signing up to Microsoft Azure, instantly making it one of Microsoft's largest cloud customers. TikTok could also be integrated with Microsoft's $7 billion advertising business. Microsoft issued a statement on Aug. 2 about its pursuit to buy TikTok's U.S. business. However, on Aug, 3, Trump said he'd rather Microsoft, valued at $1.6 trillion, purchase the app that is used by 100 million Americans in its entirety. "I think buying 30% is complicated," Trump told reporters in the Cabinet Room at the White House. There are now several other bidders competing with Microsoft, with the main one being enterprise software firm Oracle. Netflix and Twitter have also been contacted by bankers and investors, but it's not clear if they're interested, according to the Times. In any case, deal talks between the parties have "morphed into a big, messy, political soap opera," according to the report.
When the deal talks began, Microsoft is said to have been reluctant to do any kind of large TikTok acquisition, due in part to the rising tensions between the U.S. and China, according to the Times report. However, a minority stake in the wildly popular video sharing app was viewed positively as it may lead to TikTok ditching Google Cloud, which it currently uses, and signing up to Microsoft Azure, instantly making it one of Microsoft's largest cloud customers. TikTok could also be integrated with Microsoft's $7 billion advertising business. Microsoft issued a statement on Aug. 2 about its pursuit to buy TikTok's U.S. business. However, on Aug, 3, Trump said he'd rather Microsoft, valued at $1.6 trillion, purchase the app that is used by 100 million Americans in its entirety. "I think buying 30% is complicated," Trump told reporters in the Cabinet Room at the White House. There are now several other bidders competing with Microsoft, with the main one being enterprise software firm Oracle. Netflix and Twitter have also been contacted by bankers and investors, but it's not clear if they're interested, according to the Times. In any case, deal talks between the parties have "morphed into a big, messy, political soap opera," according to the report.
Fear of competition (Score:4, Insightful)
fuelled the "Tiktok is the Chinar spying arm!!!" propagandistic hysteria.
As simple as that.
Trump's Personal Failures (Score:3, Informative)
Mental Decline: [trumpresearchbook.com] The President's record of erratic and disturbing behavior has long concerned mental health professional and his own officials. Since he began his presidential campaign in 2015, Trump has had numerous episodes of erratic and disturbing behavior that raised questions of his mental and neurological fitness.
Lazy: [trumpresearchbook.com] Donald Trump spends most of his time playing golf, watching television, tweeting, and hanging out at his resorts. Meanwhile he doesn't read his intelligenc
Re:The biggest threat to national security is Trum (Score:4, Informative)
ByteDance is being forced to sell TikTok's U.S. business by the Trump administration, which says the app's current ties to China make it a national security threat.
Whoop! Whoop! Fiction alert! Fiction alert! Stand by to have sentence passed through bullshit filters...
ByteDance is being forced to sell TikTok's U.S. business by the Trump administration, which says the app's use by kids to embarass Trump makes it a presidential ego threat.
There, that's better.
Why do you think Schumer would do that? (Score:1)
As you may know, it was Chuck Schumer, he's Democrat in the Senate, who demanded the national security review of TikTok after Bytedance violated the terms of the acquisition.
In your understanding, based on what you've heard from a late-night comedian, why do you think he did that?
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Since Bytedance developed TikTok exactly what terms of acquisition did they violate?
Chuck Schumer did call for an Intelligence investigation (along with Republican Tom Cotton) though so you did get that part correct.
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The terms of the acquisition of Musical.ly were that it was to remain separate a completely separate from the firm's Chinese network, and not sene any user data to China.
Of course they didn't keep Musical.ly separate, and at least four different countries have taken action against Bytedance regarding rhe data it sends to China. Bytedance was fined in the US in 2018, I think it was, maybe 2019, for privacy law violations.
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Thank you for the clarification. In the future you may want to clarify such statements with a link or short explanation about what has been violated. Not everyone is familiar with all the history and inner workings of every company. 8^P
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Mod parent funny. Not enough funny around here these days.
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What is bullshit? That Cuckerberg was scared shitless of TikTok and started lobbying the US government to stop it? Nah, this is the sad truth: https://www.business-standard.... [business-standard.com]
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Trump - whatever you think of him personally - and his administration have put his own people first. With the added benefit of curtailing the growth of a malignant Chinese Communist Party. Clinton, W, Saint Obama (and had she been successful, Hilary) would have continued that process - and even worse, continued the disastrous immigration policies.
You were more accurate in your statement than I think you intended. Trump is all about looking out for "his own people first" which doesn't necessarily mean that he is also looking out for the people of the US (the two may intersect accidentally though).
I also notice you talk about what the Clintons and Obama failed to do but failed to mention that the last Republican president also "continued that process".
As a final note, I'm not sure that any of Trump's actions have actually "curtail[ed] the growth of a
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Don't forget the Trump butthurt factor [cnn.com].
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I vill nevar forget!
https://i.imgur.com/HKcu5bz.jp... [imgur.com]
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and... the boss exits stage left (Score:4, Informative)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/bus... [bbc.co.uk]
"morphed into"? No, that's how it started. (Score:1)
It hasn't morphed into anything different from what it always was, grand larceny
But it's all for god and country, so cheerio
I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning (Score:2, Insightful)
Donald Trump and the Republicans: "I gotcher free market right here...
Re:I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning (Score:5, Interesting)
I want to know how a bunch of videos of teenage girls doing the laffy taffy dance is a threat to national security.
Oh, wait, it isn't. It's just Trump distracting people from the real problems.
That and Facebook using a gullible Trump to squish a competitor: https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/w... [google.com]
Why is the U.S. concerned?
Washington has become increasingly worried about what it views as the possibility of Beijing performing mass data collection on American citizens, following what U.S. authorities say has been a prolonged period of cyberattacks and other efforts to obtain such information. “If you are an American adult, it is more likely than not that China has stolen your personal data,” Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.
U.S. officials are concerned that the Chinese government is potentially building a vast database of information that could be used for espionage—identifying U.S. government employees who might be susceptible to blackmail, for example—says Susan Ariel Aaronson, a professor at George Washington University who has written about the national-security implications of data collection. There is concern in the U.S., she says, that if TikTok’s user data could be obtained by the Chinese government, that would enhance any such efforts. “You can use [artificial intelligence tools] to sort through it and find an awful lot of data about what you like and don’t like,” she said.
A TikTok spokesman said that the Chinese government has never asked the company for user data and that it would refuse such a request. “TikTok has an American CEO and is owned by a private company that is backed by some of the best-known U.S. investors,” he added.
In a nutshell, it's about the information gathering and the government access to it. If they can figure out you have some fettish, like maybe piss porn, something you would be embarrassed if someone found out, they can blackmail you into committing espionage.
Yes, companies like Google and Facebook collect a shitload of data too, but they're subject to American government, which 1) doesn't really concern the American government (obviously), and 2) we've seen these companies
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In a nutshell, it is a case of "good if we do it to them, bad if they do it to us" hypocrisy from the US government, mostly catalyzed by a scared Cuckerberg who's seeing his empire become the new Myspace and because coming up with ideas is hard, taking the easy road, the "Chinese scare".
US doing business with the world as usual.
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Well, Trump is kind of a shit Midas.
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That may be the best description of Trump I've ever read. Certainly it's one of the funniest.
Red flags all over this one... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm impressed that anyone at all is interested in buying it at this point. Yes, the ban gives Bytedance some incentive to cut a deal, but on the other hand you have the strong potential for YEARS of shoulders-deep US government involvement of your operations.
Stall (Score:2)
I don't see any reason why TikTok should have to sell unless they want to. Better yet, just shutdown in the US and be happy with the rest of the world. I wonder how Americans will like it when they become an island that no one else talks to
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Yes, Indonesia for a short time in 2018, India, and now the US. If I were Trump, I'd say "a list of shithole countries".
Wait until the guys who started it are in charge? (Score:2, Interesting)
After the election, Chuck Schumer will probably be the head of the Senate, his friends will be president and Speaker of the House. Meaning Schumer and friends will have total control of the US government.
That would be the same Chuck Schumer who initiated this national security probe into Bytedance after they violated the terms of the acquisition.
I don't see how it would be beneficial to Bytedance to delay until the guy coming after them has MORE power. Schumer is lucky he convinced the Trump administratio
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Again, what acquisition did Bytedance violate the terms of? You also again failed to mention that it wasn't just Schumer that asked for an intelligence investigation into Bytedance. It was a joint request between Schumer (a Democrat) and Tom Cotton (a Republican). I don't think the Trump administration needed convincing to agree to any probe and it is just as likely that Cotton needed to convince Schumer to agree to join him in asking for an intelligence investigation.
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The terms of the acquisition of Musical.ly were that it was to remain a completely separate network from the firm's Chinese network, and not send any user data to China.
Of course they didn't keep Musical.ly separate, and at least four different countries have taken action against Bytedance regarding rhe data it sends to China. Bytedance was fined in the US in 2019, for privacy law violations.
> You also again failed to mention that it wasn't just Schumer
Right, there is also Japan, India, Indonesia, the FT
Ballooned? (Score:3)
"swell out in a spherical shape."
Sounds like Trump.
daily cash flow (Score:1)