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Why Microsoft Needs to Walk Away from TikTok
It isn’t worth getting stuck between Donald Trump and the Chinese government.
Welcome to Buy/Sell/Hold, Marker’s weekly newsletter that’s 100% business intelligence and 0% investment advice. Each week, our writers Steve LeVine and Rob Walker make sense of the most important developments in business right now — and give them a Buy for positive trends or clever moves, a Sell for mistakes or missed opportunities, or a Hold if they’re noteworthy but too early to call.
⏰ Is TikTok Worth the Headache? ⏰
The Buy/Sell/Hold Analysis
Microsoft’s potential acquisition of TikTok’s U.S. operations must be the most talked-about deal of the year. Everybody has a point of view, and everybody has an angle — especially President Trump and the Chinese government.
And that’s exactly why Microsoft should walk away from this scheme. Immediately. Acquiring TikTok isn’t worth the hassle, the risks, or the drama.
Crafting this kind of deal would be tricky under any circumstances. But these circumstances are singular: The Trump administration, on the theory that TikTok could collect user data for the Chinese government, has asserted that TikTok will be “banned” in the United States unless its…
