Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Over at the New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Mike Isaac spoke to “more than a dozen people” familiar with Microsoft’s plans to buy TikTok in order to tell the full “political soap opera:”
What started as discussions about a small investment morphed into a big, messy, political soap opera. Pushed by President *****, who has ordered TikTok’s U.S. operations to be sold or to cease operating, ByteDance is now discussing selling parts of TikTok’s global operations to several potential bidders. And with so many groups jumping into the talks to get a piece of any deal, all are trying to drive their own interests and agendas.
What’s interesting is seeing how TikTok’s initial talks with Microsoft about a small investment back in July…