Here's some words we never expected to write: Oracle said to offer $10bn cash, $10bn shares for TikTok US – plus profit share promise With TikTok under increasing pressure to offload its American operations, or be banned from the States by President Trump, the suitors are lining up. Oracle is apparently the front-runner to acquire the US side of TikTok by offering $20bn in cash and stocks, according to showbiz news sheet The Wrap. We're told the database …
I just meant Reg readers. The other fellow citizens are "they". Though now you've gotten me thinking about the world population being left behind by TikTok as it barrels through the galaxy away from us, presumably to warn any other species in the universe to steer clear of that funny little pale blue dot over there.
I can't see that amount being justified by the IP nor any tangible assets they may have for a US operation. It can only be justified by the user base and the prospects for growing it further. But there's no guarantee that a use base can be retained let alone grown as MySpace demonstrated years ago. Somehow I can't see Oracle managing anything in a manner that keeps the user base regarding it as cool.
All of which prompts the thought of where do Social Networks go in the future? There seems to be a generational issue. A new cohort of prospective users is likely to reject the network their elders are using simply because that's what their elders are using, even if that means their elder siblings. Could the future be the ability to pop up new ones every few years? Could social network servers become commodity software? I rather suspect you could even cobble up something to get a new network off the ground out of a selection of NextCloud modules and some UI bells and whistles. SNaaS? SNSPs?
You don't really need to look further than General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital. Any kind of ban would probably put paid to their plans for a very profitable IPO or sale. They could probably sue, and being American companies, would stand a good chance in court of compensation – Trump's executive order probably will not stand judicial review.
The sums being talked about are part of negotiations between investors. Presumably some kind of "white knight" is supposed to buy TikTok in return for a slice of the action later when its's sold on/back/IPO'd.
So you have it on your Phone, we wrote an app that works on your telly and your IoT fridge, also you kids have phones, a laptop and tablets and you might run it on those as well so that means you owe us $300 per month (just $1 per virtual core). If you uninstall it you still have to pay as we won't let you delete your account and you might want to reinistate it at some point in the future.
What do you mean you didn't read the EULA before clicking on OK?
Watch how fast Oracle get their ass handed back to them in the circut curt if they ever tried this. Its one thing to pull it with a Database package ment for the Enterpise Market.It will be another to clam this about every Phone in existance. besides it won't be the enduser the like of Oracle will be after, but players like Google, and Samsung. Who are stealing the java code to run the OS.
1. $20bn? Twenty freaking billion dollars?
2. How do you even buy "the US operations" of a determinedly international social network? What *are* the "US operations"? Does the network split into a US one and an international one? This whole "US operations" thing keeps getting mentioned like it's a perfectly reasonable concept, but I'm yet to read a convincing explanation of what it's actually going to *mean*.
3. Microsoft and...Wal-Mart for some reason? What?
4. A 'profit-sharing' deal? Does TikTok actually make any profits? I thought the answer was no.
"Is the logical follow on from this, that the Chinese government can oblige American multinationals to sell off their profitable Chinese operations to Chinese companies whenever the Chinese government wishes?"
I was under the impression that that was already the case. All foreign companies need a local 'partner' that takes all of the technology and 51% of the venture. Or am I wrong about that? It's supposed to be one of the main issues that World minus China has with China.
Same or similar thing happens in most countries around the world. It's quite unusual that you get the situation you do in the UK, when pretty well anyone with pockets full of cash can buy whatever they want. Including it seems our national infrastructure. Some might question the wisdom of that position.
I know what it means. Do you?
However, in this case I was referring to you, personally.
*You* are the person who used the words "Nasty little nationalist" and "Racist" to describe a Scot critical of the "English Empire". Irony, it would seem, is not just a thing like Goldy and Bronzy.
Calling someone "insane" for questioning the wisdom of selling off our national infrastructure... as if wanting value for money is alien to you - or something that a private company can be absolutely trusted with Honest 'guv. Yeah, I'd say you were a foaming-mouthed cloud cuckoo-lander (apologies to the non-neurotypical). But given parts of your post history, that checks out. Like I said, I should have known it was you.
The Chinese government changed the law to allow 100% owned foreign entities as part of a recent round of "opening up" reforms. The Tesla plant in Shanghai was the first major example of this policy put into practice. It would seem that as China continues to open-up access to its markets, now the largest in the world by many measures, the US is heading in the opposite direction. Strange times.
I think whoever buys this app in a forced-sale should not value their operations in China. It doesn't even need the Chinese government to do anything. For example, the Chinese people when surveyed made it clear that if WeChat (the other part of the Trumpian ban that has over 1bn users in China) is blocked from their Apple iPhones they will be dumping them on mass.
As for the value of TikTok, a US only isolated version may well become worthless pretty quickly. Users in China and elsewhere outside of the US sphere of control will carry on regardless.
My working theory is that the TikTok owners have bribed Trump to do this, in order to get otherwise sensible US companies to get into a bidding war for the new Friends Reunited, before the users move on to whatever app they find next.
For $20bn you could set up your own rival service and then bribe every American teenager to join. Quick Google gives us 42m adolescents in the US so that's $476.19 each!
"ByteDance might be ordered by Beijing to spy on millions of American teens using the popular mobile app, it is claimed."
So what is it exactly the the US doesn't want China to know about American teens, that they can't dance and are not any cooler than other badly dancing teens around the world?
So what is it exactly the the US doesn't want China to know about American teens, that they can't dance and are not any cooler than other badly dancing teens around the world?
Yeah, the Japanese dance teams are way better at dancing (seriously, go watch any dance videos with Miume & Kamen Liar 217).
Exactly, its only "cool" until it becomes uncool and the next thing takes over. Then it becomes MySpace or Friends Reunited. Absolutely worthless.
I seem to remember some mention of the US tax payer getting a cut. Wonder what the other countries in this 5-eyes thing will think of that.
Ah well, good to see Larry wasting money.
I hadn't heard of TikTok until I saw this sketch by Sarah Cooper mouthing Trump's inanities about Covid 19. It adds value, but $20 billion!
"It is expected the eventual buyer will pick up the American, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand branches of TikTok – countries all part of the Five Eyes group of nations who cooperate on intelligence, funnily enough."
It is now up to Fourteen Eyes. Those 5 + Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Norway + Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. (ref: Edward Snowden documents, they are called SIGINT Seniors Europe, or "SSEUR").
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