Possible buyers for the app included Microsoft and the cloud computing company Oracle. But the Chinese government issued export restrictions in August 2020 that potentially allowed Beijing to block a sale. While Oracle and Walmart ultimately seemed to reach an agreement to buy stakes in the app, resolving Mr. Trump’s concerns, the deal never closed.
Multiple federal courts later ruled that Mr. Trump did not have the authority to ban the app, limiting the government’s leverage in the case. (Oracle has since been working with TikTok to help it store U.S. user data in domestic servers and has been a key partner in its plan to assuage national security concerns.)
When President Biden took office, the administration initially focused on negotiating a deal through CFIUS with TikTok that would settle the concerns without a forced sale. The company assumed its talks would resolve soon after it submitted a 90-page proposal to the administration in August, but its efforts have been stymied by several revelations around how ByteDance and TikTok have mishandled U.S. user data.
And now, any potential sale looks even more complicated than before.
“It’s much more fraught on all levels on the economics of it,” said Glenn S. Gerstell, senior adviser the Center for Strategic & International Studies and the former general counsel of the National Security Agency. “TikTok now has two years of user growth, it’s far more entrenched in terms of its position in American social media, and clearly the tensions with China have greatly increased.”
Antitrust officials at the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are increasingly concerned about attempts by tech giants to buy other companies. The F.T.C. unsuccessfully challenged Meta’s acquisition of a small virtual reality start-up and is trying to block Microsoft from buying the video game powerhouse Activision Blizzard.
“I think the whole concern with tech platform dominance would be a factor in what buyer or buyers would be acceptable,” said William J. Baer, a former head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division. “A tech platform would legitimately have to think about the antitrust risk of buying something that, while not directly a competitor, would be seen as expanding the dominance of that platform in the tech space.”
The uncertainty around TikTok’s future has been felt by its U.S. employees, who are spread among locations including Los Angeles, the Bay Area, New York and Washington. Morale at the company has waned as state bans and legislation targeting TikTok have gained traction, according to three employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
