America forced Tiktok to ‘sell themselves’, but would anyone dare to buy?

According to the New York Times, Tiktok is a platform that is attracting up to 100 million US users with countless online advertising revenue. However, it seems that no company can buy it, or spend a lot of money to buy Tiktok when forced by the US government to “sell themselves”.

The story that the Washington government required Tiktok to separate from China’s parent company ByteDance if it wanted to operate in the US was not unusual, but with the price estimated by the NYT at about 50 billion USD or even more, Not all corporations can afford it. Even with rival Snap, this price is too expensive to acquire Tiktok.

Only a few companies can withstand this amount, like Meta (Facebook), Google or Microsoft. But according to the NYT, these corporations are not very interested in buying Tiktok because they are worried about getting involved in lawsuits related to monopoly, protecting user data … in the US.

The lesson of Elon Musk buying Twitter is still there, taking over a social network is not simply about spending money, but also having to solve a multitude of headaches, from malicious comments, malicious content to having to indulge. business customers.

In addition, it is still unclear whether Tiktok will completely separate from ByteDance to “sell itself”, and whether the Chinese government will agree to this is still an open question.

Burden

Media and advertising expert Brian Wieser told the NYT that Tiktok is too burdensome and that makes acquiring the platform not easy.

For example, will ByteDance sell Tiktok completely to the new owner or will agree to a binding contract? Will the US government accept this contract or start a new protracted war?

With its popularity, Tiktok has become a victim of a war of words between the US and China. Although not only Tiktok but also a series of platforms from China such as Shein or Temu, politicians only target this video recording application to criticize.

Currently, many states in the US have issued a ban on public devices to install Tiktok, while a bill to completely ban this platform in the US is being discussed.

The NYT has contacted a series of famous companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Twitter about whether they are interested in buying Tiktok, but all have been refused to respond.

Three years ago under the then US President Donald Trump, Tiktok was also under pressure to “sell” and Microsoft and Oracle were also interested. But China’s passage of a new law in 2020 allowing the government to block a deal like Tiktok’s has frustrated many buyers.

Although it was reported that Oracle and Walmart reached an agreement to buy shares of Tiktok, the deal was never announced or announced a successful transaction.

Antitrust

“The acquisition of Tiktok is like a trap. This platform has 2 years of development and is having a deep influence on American social networks. Therefore, the acquisition of this company will lead to many accompanying consequences,” said expert Glenn S.Gerstell of the Center for International Strategic Studies (CSIS).

The first is the antitrust law when the Department of Justice and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are both increasingly worried about the fact that large corporations increase acquisitions and mergers of other companies.

Previously, the FTC tried unsuccessfully to prevent Meta from acquiring a virtual universe startup. The agency is currently trying to prevent Microsoft from buying the game company Activision Blizzard.

“I think concerns about antitrust laws will affect businesses’ merger decisions. Tech giants will have to think very carefully about the risk of violating this law before buying any business, even if the company is not in the same segment, it can still be considered as causing a monopoly in the industry. technology,” said William J.Baer, ​​former head of the antitrust division of the US Department of Justice.

NYT sources said that the morale of Tiktok employees in the US is currently low when many states ban the platform, while company leaders always complain that even though ByteDance has dived, concerns about information security users of American politicians still won’t go away.

*Source: NYT