rb Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Apparently, the CEO talked to Trump and planning to bag it by Sept 15. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/03/microsoft-confirms-talks-to-buy-tiktok-in-us.html To echo an earlier comment, it is amazing, it has been 4 years or so since Microsoft had bought Linkedin, and i totally forgot about it and no one seem to complaining about it and it just completely off the radar. Cannot say the same thing about Whole Food and Amazon. As a long term MSFT shareholder you get used to the fact that they will do something like this from time to time. So you just suck it up and move on. We're not really bitching about the Nokia acquisition either. Remember the resounding success that was? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patience_and_focus Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 This does give me a pause - https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/03/former-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-says-potential-tiktok-deal-is-exciting.html When Steve starts getting exciting, MS shareholders should start getting depressed. One could write a book about Steve's exciting internal and external adventures (eQuantive, Bing, Nokia to name a few). So far though Satya has avoided the same fate with acquisitions under his belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Apparently, the CEO talked to Trump and planning to bag it by Sept 15. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/03/microsoft-confirms-talks-to-buy-tiktok-in-us.html To echo an earlier comment, it is amazing, it has been 4 years or so since Microsoft had bought Linkedin, and i totally forgot about it and no one seem to complaining about it and it just completely off the radar. Cannot say the same thing about Whole Food and Amazon. As a long term MSFT shareholder you get used to the fact that they will do something like this from time to time. So you just suck it up and move on. We're not really bitching about the Nokia acquisition either. Remember the resounding success that was? It was a resounding success in that I decided to sell my Microsoft shares expecting crappy results for couple years. I pretty much perfectly marked the bottom. ::) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerxes Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Not to mention the giant offer he made to buy Yahoo. I recall +$30 billion number. Thankfully for Microsoft, Yahoo leadership proved to be the greater fool for rejecting the offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfp Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Is there a precedent for this type of thing? POTUS: “I did say that ‘If you buy it…a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States, because we’re making it possible for this deal to happen.’ Right now they don’t have any rights unless we give it to them.” The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for additional information about how that would work. Another quote from the President: “It’s a little bit like the landlord/tenant; without a lease the tenant has nothing, so they pay what’s called ‘key money,’ or they pay something,” Trump said. “But the United States should be reimbursed or should be paid a substantial amount of money, because without the United States they don’t have anything, at least having to do with the 30%.” It does sound a bit like something Rod Blagojevich would say on a wire tap. (commuted by Trump) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LC Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Yes, in banana republics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Well, at least we don't have a socialist president who might confiscate money from a business, right? ::) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spekulatius Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Yes, in banana republics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rb Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 Well as far as I know the US doesn't have a protection tax on the books. So Trump can take his shady Queens landlord bullshit to Fox News. I'm fairly certain that the only tax MSFT will pay is income tax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undervalued Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Yes, in banana republics. If China is the one doing this, nuke is going to be flying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Good piece on TikTok by Eugene Wei: https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fareastwarriors Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Good piece on TikTok by Eugene Wei: https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat This was a pretty interesting read. I never thought about these social media/tech companies in this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Matt Levine on the whole bribery thing: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-08-04/trump-on-tiktok-sale-payment-do-we-really-have-to-talk-about-it Funny stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Good piece on TikTok by Eugene Wei: https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat OK. I am sold. What is the app that provides pure interest graph for non-video content? Is there such a thing? Google News/Pocket? But isn't that news-only or news-primarily? I hate videos. IMO video is the worst return-on-time-invested content format. But maybe pure interest graph does not work on non-videos. E.g. it took me 15 minutes (maybe) to read Eugene's article. At that rate, I may only read 4 items per hour and might not spend more than an hour or two on the interest-graph-app per day. Tough for algorithm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rb Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 LOOOL!!! WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House officials on Tuesday could not say how the U.S. government would receive a portion of the proceeds from any sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations, one day after President Donald Trump called for a cut of the money. “There’s no specific blueprint here,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Fox Business Network on Tuesday. “It may be that the president was thinking, because the Treasury has had to do so much work on this, there are a lot of options here. I’m not sure it’s a specific concept that will be followed through....Regarding fees or anything like that, all that remains to be seen.” nuff said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 David Faber: Microsoft & ByteDance hope to reach a deal in 2-3 weeks and have just started talks over TikTok's value. Microsoft has also agreed with the U.S. to transfer software code from China to U.S. servers within a year, sources tell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patience_and_focus Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 LOOOL!!! WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House officials on Tuesday could not say how the U.S. government would receive a portion of the proceeds from any sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations, one day after President Donald Trump called for a cut of the money. “There’s no specific blueprint here,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Fox Business Network on Tuesday. “It may be that the president was thinking, because the Treasury has had to do so much work on this, there are a lot of options here. I’m not sure it’s a specific concept that will be followed through....Regarding fees or anything like that, all that remains to be seen.” nuff said Well, Larry needs to work harder and do his research on the NY-NJ mafia of the 60s, 70s and 80s. There will be more than one blueprint to go with. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Ben Thompson wrote: "Microsoft is likely banking on the fact that any payment to the U.S. Treasury will be appealable, but that is small solace to anyone concerned about freedom generally and the unintended consequences of this decision specifically." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fareastwarriors Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/05/microsoft-has-one-year-to-transfer-tiktoks-code-to-the-us.html The valuation of the deal could be as high as $30 billion, or as low as $10 billion, Faber reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary17 Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 it makes Mark's $1B acquisition of Instagram look very smart! he's a value investor! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Bill Gates short interview on TikTok: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-08-05/bill-gates-says-tiktok-s-u-s-data-safe-with-microsoft-video?sref=cSRHqDay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 FT reporting that MSFT is trying to buy all of TikTok: https://www.ft.com/content/45d739f5-37cc-4957-874d-a310c2ac8e07 The US software company said on Sunday it was in negotiations with ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to explore “a purchase of the TikTok service in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand”. But Microsoft has since also pursued a plan that would include all countries where TikTok operates. TikTok does not operate in China, and such a deal would not extend to its China-facing sister app Douyin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fareastwarriors Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 TikTok reveals detailed user numbers for the first time https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/tiktok-reveals-us-global-user-growth-numbers-for-first-time.html TikTok has about 100 million monthly active U.S. users, up nearly 800% percent from Jan. 2018. TikTok said it has about 50 million daily active U.S. users. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 Here's the exact numbers from the court filing: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spekulatius Posted August 26, 2020 Share Posted August 26, 2020 TikTok would be worth more than $100B and perhaps $200B in any non distressed sale in the current environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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