Microsoft in Talks To Buy TikTok, as Trump Weighs Curtailing App (nytimes.com) 49
Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app, New York Times reported Friday, citing a person with knowledge of the discussions, as President Trump said on Friday that he was considering taking steps that would effectively ban the app from the United States. From a report: It's unclear how advanced the talks between Microsoft and TikTok are, but any deal could help alter TikTok's ownership, said the person with knowledge of the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese internet company that is valued at $100 billion. That has raised scrutiny of the app, with Trump administration officials saying that they have been concerned that TikTok poses a threat to national security.
The Trump administration has been weighing whether to order ByteDance to divest from American assets it acquired in 2017, which were later merged into TikTok. Bloomberg reported Friday that the president was poised to announce an order that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. operations. The Trump administration has also been weighing other potential actions against the company, including adding ByteDance to a so-called "entity list," which prevents foreign companies from purchasing American products and services without a special license, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Trump administration has been weighing whether to order ByteDance to divest from American assets it acquired in 2017, which were later merged into TikTok. Bloomberg reported Friday that the president was poised to announce an order that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. operations. The Trump administration has also been weighing other potential actions against the company, including adding ByteDance to a so-called "entity list," which prevents foreign companies from purchasing American products and services without a special license, according to people familiar with the matter.
So what is it then? (Score:1, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Bill Gates only owns 1.3% of Microsoft and no longer works there .. he's even stepped down from the board of Microsoft. Compare that to Vanguard Group (many people's retirement funds) which owns over 8% of Microsoft. Expect Social Security? Many of retirement funds including Social Security are heavily invested in our tech companies .. if they go bye bye, so does retirement!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
The social security trust fund is an IOU in the federal treasury. Having stocks backing it would be a net positive compared to now.
No not at all. The fact that you think "stocks" are more reliable than credit backed by the US Government means nobody in their right mind should trust you with their money.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Want to be sure the money is paid back? Remove deadbeat republicans who don't like to pay their bills. Maybe you've heard of people like that somewhere? [newsweek.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Re: So what is it then? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The real question is, which one will infect the other more?
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft has its faults but it's definitely a lesser evil compared to Facebook, Twitter, and so on.
Re: (Score:3)
Microsoft has its faults but it's definitely a lesser evil compared to Facebook, Twitter, and so on.
Windows 10 is the most malicious piece of spyware ever conceived. Facebook only tracks you around the web, Windows can track all your computing activity, and the EULA gives them the right to do so.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Considering most people that use a desktop computer use Windows, it's a problem that MS knows everything single thing they do with their computer.
Normal people that don't use facebook but still have a computer tend to still use MS windows.
Plus Microsoft has so much blood on its hands from the 90s. Fuck Microsoft.
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair, MS in the early 2020s is much different than MS in the late 1990s
Windows is largely a dead-end as a platform, the way going forward for end-user computing is web browsers, and at that point, it doesn't matter much what the underlying OS the browser's running on.
I mean, it's not *that* out there to say that there may come a point where "Windows" is actually a Linux distro with the Windows API bolted on top.
Re:So what is it then? (Score:5, Funny)
Is Microsoft considered less evil than China or not?
We'll find out when Microsoft embarrasses the 'President'.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:So what is it then? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is Microsoft considered less evil than China or not?
Microsoft is more evil than China as a people, but the Chinese government just cancelled an election, suppresses free speech, jails people for life for protesting, has concentration camps in Xinjiang, and is trying to destroy the culture of Tibet. The CCP is worse than Microsoft.
Re: (Score:1)
Do you also remember in college, all the hippie girls with the Free Tibet bumper stickers?
How many do you suppose now have corporate jobs at companies who deal with Tencent or AliBaba, and have traded them for Fuck Tibet bumper stickers?
Re: (Score:2)
Bill Gates only owns 1.3% of Microsoft and no longer works there .. he's even stepped down from the board of Microsoft. Compare that to Vanguard Group (many people's retirement funds) which owns over 8% of Microsoft. Expect Social Security? Many of retirement funds including Social Security are heavily invested in our tech companies .. if they go bye bye, so does retirement.
Re: (Score:2)
Between the two of them, in 2020, I can only think of one that does all of the following:
- Creates concentration camps for ethnic minorities
- Institutes an ethnic cleansing campaign to make Lebensraum for its favored ethnicity at the expense of untermenchen
- Maintains a policy of dredging up centuries old claims to land and uses them as excuses to justify military conflict, so as to obtain more lebensraum
- Originates predatory loans for developing nations that end in land grabs and resource extraction
- An o
Are they planning to integrate it with Teams? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
They heard it was spyware, and decided that was a natural fit for their organization.
Will other apps start to be Americanized? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I can see the bit where the government of China orders all US corporations to sell the operations in China on a public auction market. They have thirty days to comply and they get what ever money they get from Chinese corporations willing to bid for them. Boy will that be messy for M$ and Google and EBay and Amazon and Wallmart. How many US corporations will be forced to sell the assets in China for cents on the dollar. Never forget in economic terms Mainland China has the whip hand when it comes to copyrig
Anybody else think it's suspicious (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Would you make this exact same comment if the article was about Google or Apple trying to buy TikTok?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
It reads like a snarky quip, but this is honestly a good and logical response. However, unless Microsoft is provably more innocent than them I don't think there's an argument that they are a responsible choice to encourage such a deal.
One could however, suppose that MS is more likely to be a good choice given that the CCP is in the process of purging itself of Windows OS in favor of a CCP-made Linux. This would also officially put Redmond on the to-nuke list since the CCP wouldn't be nuking their OS vendo
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
This is why Europe needs to create their own social media platforms to compete with the US monopoly. US and China shouldn't be the only choice.
Re: (Score:1)
I agree. Then our companies can stop playing along with crazy link taxes and the ridiculous speech restriction laws that the Old World can't outgrow.
It would be mutually beneficial and we could all operate in spaces more amenable to our sensibilities.
Trump threatening to ban it should lower the price (Score:1)
Oh no! (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Flash forward : 2025 Microsoft sells TikTok (Score:2)
after integrating it into Teams and totally ignoring their user base, someone will be able to buy up the scraps for a few million.
Uh-huh (Score:1)