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Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

businessinsider.com

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Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#281

Post by azinman2 »

fqye wrote: post #258

If the US forced ByteDance to sell Tiktok, the US would lose its last bit of moral high ground in China, the spirit of free market and rule by law. If you are worried about data leakage to China, you set rules and law and enforce them. That is what China is doing. They asked Apple and other cloud service provider to store data in China. The US could setup clear rules and regulations about where to put data of US user…

China has actively banned major US companies like Google for a long time now. It's clear that they've never been interested in 'playing fair' and this is the first time the US is actually standing up for its own companies and security concerns. I'm no Trump admin fan, but I do support taking a stand against the asymmetry that's happened for a long time now.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#282

Post by cheez »

rubber_duck wrote: post #275
cheez wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the trend here is they left them alone...

Github is actively merging features of Azure DevOps and they plan to merge the two eventually, also business model changes, integration with VS Code, Azure, etc. Github is actively within Microsoft ecosystem and all for the better of both sides from my experience. Xamarin was crap before the Microsoft acquisition, it was improving at great pace afterwards and it's pretty integrated into .NET standard story (but still…

The fact that you can still talk about them as separate is what I mean. It isn't some MS brand Xamarin. It's still Xamarin.

Github is still Github.

Of course Microsoft played a part in the progress. Try to be more generous with your nitpicking.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#283

Post by throwaway78359 »

jychang wrote: post #238
throwaway78359 wrote: post #236

Throwaway for obvious reasons. I cannot understand what executive thinks this is a good idea or that it makes any sense in the broader organizational structure of Microsoft. It's been so nice to see five years or so of relatively GOOD acquisitions. LinkedIn made sense: it's allowed for a legitimate Salesforce compete, especially when paired with Dynamics. GitHub was incredibly smart and it aligns well with the resurg…

I actually think it’s a good play, the same way buying Minecraft was a good idea. You’re talking about a company that made Halo and Minecraft the face of its consumer gaming brand, calls their AI assistant “Cortana”, and their internal windows builds “redstone”. Tiktok doesn’t make sense if you think of Microsoft as “not a social media company”, but it’s a part of a push to engage the GenZ audience that started with…

I have absolutely zero faith in our ability to execute on the consumer side with this type of product. We couldn’t even make an also-ran Twitch competitor, despite literally owning one of the major consoles and being the platform for 99.99% of all PC games.

Minecraft was a good acquisition. Xbox, by and large, has made good acquisitions. But the rumor isn’t Xbox is buying TikTok, it’s Microsoft.

I would argue that with the exception of Xbox, Microsoft doesn’t have a strong consumer play and I would further argue it doesn’t need it. The re-emphasis on developer tools (GitHub, WSL2, Windows Terminal, Visual Studio Code) and productivity (Office 365 and M365, Power Platform) has been a boon for the business. Pure consumer pursuits like Cortana or Windows Phone or Groove Music have not worked.

We’re not a company that has social in our DNA. GitHub and LinkedIn are acquisitions that are run with various degrees of autonomy, but even as independent entities, neither was ever social the way Twitter or Facebook are.

When you talk about brand value for Gen Z, I understand what you’re saying, but I fully disagree chasing that potential value has legs. How many times has Microsoft tried to be “cool” over the last 45 years and how many times has it failed at it? Microsoft is at its most successful when it stops trying to chase trends and be cool and just focuses on the stuff it is good at.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#285

Post by whoevercares »

nujabe wrote: post #265
fqye wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bing is accessible from China. FB and Twitter must comply with censorship rules and storage of user data in China, among other things, to operate in China. Google was operating and accessible in China until China made clear the rules for them to follow. Google decided it couldn't follow they they pulled out the search engine business from China. China didn't force Google to sell. Censorship is bad but that is another…

Dang, every one of this user's posts is defending the CCP. I think you've mentioned something about 'single purpose accounts' not being allowed. I kindly ask you take a look at this. As for your comment fqye, it is not even worthy of a response.

Ban me as well. I’m also a constant defender of CCP by your standard.

How arrogant are you? People like YOU who ignite nation and ideological flamewar should be banned instead

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#287

Post by sandworm101 »

ogre_codes wrote: post #187
nsl73 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company Does anyone else remember when housing data in US severs was considered less private than alternatives? It’s incredible that Azure, and the rest of the us based cloud providers, have been able to rebrand American severs as the cloud so successfully that they are well known for being secure and safe.

> Does anyone else remember when housing data in US severs was considered less private than alternatives? Right now much of Europe considers storing data in the US to be less private than hosting it locally. The US is certainly not in the same category as Russia or China, but it's not great either.

Canada too.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#288

Post by AndrewBissell »

xxpor wrote: post #173
AndrewBissell wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watch as the political "poison" of TikTok's rampant user surveillance is magically transmuted away once it is acquired by an American tech company!

But that's the exact issue, it's political poison because of who owns it. Why would it be "magically transmuted away"? That's literally the entire point.

My point is that it's funny that what makes TikTok poisonous is not the incredibly intrusive surveillance itself, but rather the fact that it's being done by a foreign company/government (which ultimately can probably do a lot less harm to Americans with all that info than Microsoft or the US government).

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#289

Post by vore »

altaria wrote: post #267
mullingitover wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, the US doesn't only support totalitarians. However, it does support them. The US support for democracy isn't based on principles is my point, it's based on convenience, and the US will merrily crush a democracy and install a dictator if it's in US interests.

[flagged]

I believe there's a saying: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#290

Post by fomine3 »

rmorey wrote: post #101
slipheen wrote: post #64

I think it's a clever play. It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company, and give them a better foothold in Social Networking than Linked-in provides. I'd have a few concerns about if MS can keep it growing- For one, I worry that Microsoft may mismanage it, similar to how they treated Skype. We saw Yahoo buy many reasonable smaller social networks (Flickr, Delicious, Tumblr) and was never a…

I agree that they botched Skype, but I think some of their more recent acquisitions - namely: Mojang, Xamarin, GitHub - have gone pretty well, IMO

Add LinkedIn for SNS
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