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Microsoft Is in Talks to Buy TikTok in U.S.
(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. is exploring an acquisition of TikTok’s operations in the U.S., according to a people familiar with the matter. A deal would give the software company a popular social-media service and relieve U.S. government pressure on the Chinese owner of the video-sharing app.The Trump administration has been weighing whether to direct China-based ByteDance Ltd. to divest its stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations, according to several people familiar with the issue. The U.S. has been investigating potential national security risks due to the Chinese company’s control of the app.While the administration was prepared to announce an order as soon as Friday, according to three people familiar with the matter, another person said later that the decision was on hold, pending further review by President Donald Trump. All of the people asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.Spokespeople for Microsoft and TikTok declined to comment on any potential talks. The software company’s interest in the app was reported earlier by Fox Business Network.Trump on Friday night said he would ban TikTok from the U.S., and had the authority to do so by executive order or under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He was signing the document on Saturday, he said.“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” the president told reporters. Asked when it would happen, he said: “Soon, immediately. I mean essentially immediately.”Earlier in the day, he said that “we are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”Any transaction could face regulatory hurdles. ByteDance bought Musical.ly Inc. in 2017 and merged it with TikTok, creating a social-media hit in the U.S -- the first Chinese app to make such inroads. As TikTok became more popular, U.S. officials grew concerned about the potential for the Chinese government to use the app to gain data on U.S. citizens.The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. began a review in 2019 of the Musical.ly purchase. In recent years, CFIUS, which investigates overseas acquisitions of U.S. businesses, has taken a much more aggressive role in reviewing and approving deals that may threaten national security. It can recommend that the president block or unwind transactions.It’s also possible that other potential buyers could come forward, said another person familiar with the discussions. Microsoft’s industry peers -- Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. -- fit the profile of potential suitors, though all are under antitrust scrutiny from U.S. regulators, which would likely complicate a deal.A purchase of TikTok would represent a huge coup for Microsoft, which would gain a popular consumer app that has won over young people with a steady diet of dance videos, lip-syncing clips and viral memes. The company has dabbled in social-media investments in the past, but hasn’t developed a popular service of its own in the lucrative sector. Microsoft acquired the LinkedIn job-hunting and corporate networking company for $26.2 billion in 2016.Microsoft can point to one acquisition that came with a massive existing community of users that has increased under its ownership -- the 2014 deal for Minecraft, the best-selling video game ever.Other purchases of popular services have gone less well. The 2011 pickup of Skype led to several years of stagnation for the voice-calling service and Microsoft fell behind newer products in the category. Outside of Xbox, the company hasn’t focused on younger consumers. A TikTok deal could change that, though, and give Microsoft “a crown jewel on the consumer social media front,” Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note to investors Friday.TikTok has repeatedly rejected accusations that it feeds user data to China or is beholden to Beijing, even though ByteDance is based there. TikTok now has a U.S.-based chief executive officer and ByteDance has considered making other organizational changes to satisfy U.S. authorities.“Hundreds of millions of people come to TikTok for entertainment and connection, including our community of creators and artists who are building livelihoods from the platform,” a TikTok spokeswoman said Friday. “We’re motivated by their passion and creativity, and committed to protecting their privacy and safety as we continue working to bring joy to families and meaningful careers to those who create on our platform.”The mechanics of separating the TikTok app in the U.S. from the rest of its operations won’t come without complications. Unlike many tech companies in the U.S. where engineers for, say, Google, work on particular products like YouTube or Google Maps, many of ByteDance’s engineers work across its different platforms and services and continue to work on TikTok globally.On Thursday, U.S. Senators Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, wrote the Justice Department asking for an investigation of whether TikTok has violated the constitutional rights of Americans by sharing private information with the Chinese government.A deal with Microsoft could potentially help extract ByteDance from the political war between the U.S. and China.U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican and member of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, applauded the idea of a TikTok sale. “In its current form, TikTok represents a potential threat to personal privacy and our national security,” Rubio said in a statement. “We must do more than simply remove ByteDance from the equation. Moving forward, we must establish a framework of standards that must be met before a high-risk, foreign-based app is allowed to operate on American telecommunications networks and devices.”(Updates with Trump’s comments in the 5th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Sat, 01 Aug 2020 08:51:20 +0000Read more‘Amazon Junior’ Throws Weight Around on Canada’s Stock Market
(Bloomberg) -- Shopify Inc. is a growing rival to Amazon.com Inc. in e-commerce. The Canadian tech company is still much smaller than the U.S. giant, of course -- except in one respect.Ottawa-based Shopify, which went public only five years ago, has come to have an outsized impact on equity returns in its home country. It now accounts for fully 6.5% of the S&P/TSX Composite Index, more than Amazon’s 4.9% weight in the S&P 500.As Shopify goes -- and most of the time it goes up, not down -- so goes Canada’s main equity benchmark. The stock’s blistering run has added more than 4.5 percentage points to the TSX index’s return this year. That’s far more than the influence of Amazon, Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc. or Facebook Inc. on the S&P 500, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.One reason Shopify stands out, of course, is there are no other Canadian tech companies even close to its size: it closed the week with a market value of C$165 billion ($123 billion). As investors pile into the tech sector globally -- and as more retailers turn to online selling to serve customers during the pandemic -- Shopify’s popularity keeps growing. The stock is an easy choice for managers of Canadian large-cap funds who want some local exposure to e-commerce.The three largest sectors in the TSX index -- financials, energy and materials -- have a combined 55% weighting, with 99 of the index’s 221 members.The index has only 10 tech companies. Yet, they now represent 10.5% of the TSX composite, and that percentage has almost doubled this year. For Shopify, its influence has tripled since the end of 2019.Shopify’s stellar earnings report this week provided fresh evidence of how the stock can push around the broader index. After reporting second-quarter sales that nearly doubled, crushing analysts’ estimates, the stock jumped 6.8%.On that day the TSX rose 173 points. Shopify alone contributed 71 points of the gain, data compiled by Bloomberg show.Read more: Big Tech Earnings Surge During Pandemic While the Economy Slumps“Shopify has moved to rival Royal Bank largely because it is perceived as ‘Amazon Junior’ – facilitating the global move to online consumption,” said Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce strategist Ian de Verteuil in a July 17 report. “Excluding Shopify, S&P/TSX returns over the past year and YTD would be about 500 basis points lower -- as would the percent exposure to the three big sectors.”Here’s what happened this week.Just the NumbersEconomyCanada’s economy has made up almost half of its historic contraction since the worst days of the pandemic, Statistics Canada reported Friday. Gross domestic product expanded 4.5% in May versus April. June was even stronger, with the statistics agency reporting a flash estimate of another 5% increase. Cumulatively, GDP has increased about 10% in the two months, after falling more than 18% in March and April.The Canadian government’s efforts to prevent the economy from collapsing have resulted in more red ink in just two months than in any full year in the country’s history. The shortfall for April and May hit C$87 billion, according to finance department figures released Friday.PoliticsPrime Minister Justin Trudeau denied allegations his ties to the WE Charity led the government to award a contract to the organization. In 90 minutes of testimony to a parliamentary committee, he said he never influenced the public service’s decision to choose WE to administer a C$900 million student-grant program this spring, even though he realized in hindsight he should have recused himself from cabinet’s final decision on the matter.Trudeau unveiled a plan to wind down Ottawa’s flagship Covid-19 income support benefit and bring recipients into an expanded employment insurance system. The Canadian Emergency Response Benefit will be phased out as the first people to receive the C$2,000 monthly payments start losing eligibility at the end of August.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Fri, 31 Jul 2020 21:08:54 +0000Read moreStock market news live updates: Stocks post fourth straight monthly gain as tech shares surge
Stocks ended higher on Friday, with the Nasdaq outperforming after a slew of better than expected corporate earnings results from major tech firms. Facebook and Apple posted record closing highs.
Fri, 31 Jul 2020 20:02:41 +0000Read more'This is the beginning of the end of Big Tech as we know it': NYU professor Galloway
“It is time to return to our roots and break up” big tech to “oxygenate the marketplace,” says NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway.
Fri, 31 Jul 2020 19:47:18 +0000Read moreFirst US apps based on Google and Apple Exposure Notification System expected in 'coming weeks'
Google Vice President of Engineering Dave Burke provided an update about the Exposure Notifications System (ENS) that Google developed in partnership with Apple as a way to help public health authorities supplement contact-tracing efforts with a connected solution that preserves privacy while alerting people of potential exposure to confirmed cases of COVID-19. In the update, Burke notes that the company expects "to see the first set of these apps roll out in the coming weeks" in the U.S., which may be a tacit response to some critics who have pointed out that we haven't seen much in the way of actual products being built on the technology that was launched in May. Burke writes that 20 states and territories across the U.S. are currently "exploring" apps that make use of the ENS system, and that together those represent nearly half (45%) of the overall American populace.
Fri, 31 Jul 2020 18:55:51 +0000Read more